Some would argue that they are missing out on becoming familiar with the currently dominant software in business and government (MS Office). However the world is into a massive software shift with unpredictable outcomes, even within their few years from pupil to employee. What you are giving them is the experience of learning to collaborate online, which is very valuable indeed. Once they have that, they can learn a new software environment if they need to for higher education and work. My guess is that generation will be demanding collaborative, platform-free software. If Office can make that shift in time, then it will continue to dominate. If not, those kids will ignore Office when they become CEOs.
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Microsoft Losing Next Generation of Office Users by Delaying iOS Release
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just as there an immense amount of arrogance that the iwork suite is enough (for no other reason than its made by apple) there seems to be no less than if you dont use microsoft office (even if its enough for you) you are doing something wrong.
i would add to your example that the function and environment of google drive will help and prepare those that need and will take the step up to office. its certainly more "traditional" in appearance than iwork and most of the most used formulas and functions work just the same.
and as you said you use macbooks and ipads. microsoft office obviously dosent work on ipads so more power to you i say.
I am not that noble.
We are using google docs not just because it allows for easier collaboration, but also because it is easier to use. The problem with office is precisely because it has too many features, so I sometimes get pupils sending me garishly formatted documents.
With google docs, fewer features mean fewer ways the pupils can screw up.
Who knows - we may just raise the next generation of workers who actively shun or even boycott Office.
A bit of context - I use my own iPad in the classroom, but my pupils use their own windows laptops (we are a 1-to-1 computing school environment), so they can access Office. I have both Office and iWork's on my MacBook, and I have found that they each excel in different scenarios.
I prefer iWork's when I am creating customized worksheets for my pupils that I won't need to share around. Pages just seems to work better. For example, when I insert an image into an essay, the text automatically reformats itself. Trying to do the same thing in Word would give me fits.
Numbers for keeping track of pupil submissions (primarily for iCloud integration, I am all-in for Apple devices).
Keynote for presentations, now that I can access them through the browser of my work laptop (a windows tablet laptop).
Office mainly when I am interacting with documents I will need to later share with my colleagues, though I am slowly moving towards google drive for the non-confidential ones (like the event flow for an event I have to plan).
Google drive for classroom work. For example, as my pupils are working on a group piece of writing, I can be viewing their writing from the google drive app in my iPad, and showing it on the interactive whiteboard (via airplay mirroring) when I want to explain something to the class.
For me, the dealbreaker is about which lets me get the job done with the least effort.
I simply have no need for the NYC subway system. Doesn't mean that MILLIONS other don't. iLife is the homeless guy powered rickshaw to the ms office suite that is the NYC subway system.
Hey, I'm an ex Kodaker and now work for a subsidiary. Anyways, Kodak certainly DID come up with a working digital camera way back before sony or anyone else even knew what they were. Steve Sasson is his name and I worked with him briefly. However, they did NOT push this technology or pursue it. They took the "no one is ever gonna use that" angle and it obviously killed them.
I agree that Kodak was never a camera company but they could have patented the image collection technology and been the chip provider for so many other cameras out there. That's where the big money would have been.
IWork is free. Persian was only necessary for WMVs, which Windows cannot play out of the box in a standard installation.
Yes. Apple's latest technique has been offering iWork / iLife for free for iOS, which is causing people to switch to iOS. When they switch to iOS, the often also switch to OSX.
i go into the app store and pages, numbers and keynote each costs $19.99 ($9.99 for ios)
flip4mac was for wmv. perian was for divx, xvid, flv, mkv etc. windows cannot play windows media video files out of the box. are you sure about that?
being free and be offered along with new purchases is not the same thing.
AGREE
this is shameless advertising for a so-so product, and as usual it is not free for the real pro version, its 12$ a month per user, which is more expensive than Office,
Your last sentence kind of gives away the game.I am not that noble.
We are using google docs not just because it allows for easier collaboration, but also because it is easier to use. The problem with office is precisely because it has too many features, so I sometimes get pupils sending me garishly formatted documents.
With google docs, fewer features mean fewer ways the pupils can screw up.
Who knows - we may just raise the next generation of workers who actively shun or even boycott Office.
What didn't you like about the collaboration in the current version of Office apps?
I'm not interested in a teacher who wants to raise the next generation of workers to shun or boycott what she doesn't like. I guess that makes reason #4,845,143 why we homeschool.
We use an iMac, two MacBook Airs, 4 iPads, an Android tablet, a Windows tablet, 2 desktop Windows machines, a Windows laptop, Office for Windows and Mac, Scrivener, and OpenOffice. My students choose the tools that work for them, I don't. And if they need such tools when it comes time to get a job, they'll have experience with all of them.
Microsoft seems to think they can lure people away from iPads to Surfaces by keeping Office unique to the Surface. And it may cause a small number to switch.
But, from my own experience, I have never in my entire life bought hardware based on one piece of software. For me, its always the "whole package" and I would think that's true for most.
Office isn't going to cause an en masse migration to Surface. MS is simply losing sales by holding back Office.
But, from my own experience, I have never in my entire life bought hardware based on one piece of software. For me, its always the "whole package" and I would think that's true for most.
Office isn't going to cause an en masse migration to Surface. MS is simply losing sales by holding back Office.
We have to use Office due to inertia. Most business files are still in Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. Sure, you can use something else, but you always have that worry in the back of your mind that you will miss that formatting mistake and you won't know it until you are in the middle of your presentation. In terms of grade school students, Google Docs will rule--nobody uses Office or MS at the grade school level. They are all moving towards chrome books.
Chromebooks in school is a bad idea, as it won't get them used to what they will be using in the working world. OK for grade school maybe, as you wrote, but by high school, they need to be using full PC' and Office. Not because they/it are better, but just because that's the way it is now.
MS has been in the drivers seat for so long with a head start on the Windows/MSO market that they failed to look in the rear view mirror and now that they do, they don't see the tablet pack is out in front of them.
In the process, they lost what is hardest to regain once you are down; Mind Share.
Silly analogies does nothing to reverse the sheer number of people that are divorcing from MSFT every year by going to things like iOS, OSX, Chrome, and android.
Once one asserts that they don't need Microsoft, that perception is very hard to change, and relying the entrenched enterprise as a halo effect isn't working.
iOS Office should have been done a year ago.
Fear, uncertainty, doubt. Here. Let me look that up for you in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
In case you're a TL;DR type, here's a relevant quote:
Let's go through that sentence clause by clause:
"... might use FUD to invite unfavorable opinions and speculation about a competitors product; ..."
Have you noticed the Microsoft ads hyping Surface and its so-called productivity features while depicting iPad as a leisure-time-only "media tablet"? Holding back Office or iOS is part of that strategy.
Now lets go back to the original post and the quote from the Microsoft executive. He said "When they (customers) want to do real work, they are going to want to use Office." The original post also states "We have some pretty exciting plans," said John Case, the top Office marketing executive, without giving any details.
The longer Office for iOS is held back, the more doubt Microsoft creates around iPad (and iPhone) and their ability to do "real work." Especially since MS executives have given no time frame for Office for iOS release. Or so Microsoft hopes. Which leads us to ...
"... to increase the general estimation of switching costs among current customers; ...
Without Office for iPad, businesses using iPads would need to switch to Quip and other apps that are available on iPad and other platforms. (This is in the original post, in case you didn't read it.) That means re-training employees, forcing clients and others to re-send documents in Quip format, and other possibly time-consuming inconveniences.
Holding back Office for iOS will, in Microsoft's eyes, slow down Apple's penetration of the corporate IT market. And it will raise fears of unknown switching costs. But Apple is steadily gaining installed base in corporations. They are displacing Microsoft in the Post-PC era. Which brings us to...
... or to maintain leverage over a current business partner who could potentially become a rival.
I'd say Apple is already a rival. Releasing Office for iOS would make them an even more powerful rival. Office for iOS would generate roughly $2.5 billion per year for Microsoft according to the original post's author. But it would be one of the final nails in the coffin of Microsoft's attempts to be relevant in the mobile space, if not the final nail. It would kill off Surface more or less instantly.
Anyway, as I said in my reply to the original post, FUD doesn't work unless you're a dominant player. MS isn't a dominant player in mobile, so none of their FUD in that space has much of an effect. On anyone.
Any more questions?
You said it all... Honestly I'm tired of being held hostage over MS Office. Some more development for Numbers and I'll be close to free. We need a suitable MS Access replacement though... Nothing close to that. FileMaker Pro is not even close. Great for simple DB's, but not a good solution for heavy data manipulation... Access rules.
Article does not mention how much Google undermined MS with its great set of free apps and services (not excellent, but good enough for need).
MS saw years ago the threat of Google but I have not seen much in way to countering it.
I just wonder how soon before MS really starts hurting.
MS saw years ago the threat of Google but I have not seen much in way to countering it.
I just wonder how soon before MS really starts hurting.
"As Microsoft fails to bring its productivity software to Apple's mobile platform, companies are switching from the Office suite on computers to a cheaper, simpler, touch friendly solution".
It's the first time Microsoft is doing something really good for the computer world.
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Microsoft executive: ""When they (customers) want to do real work, they are going to want to use Office."
How true! For all these years, we have stopped working, while waiting for them to release their allmight, indispensable software.
It's the first time Microsoft is doing something really good for the computer world.
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Microsoft executive: ""When they (customers) want to do real work, they are going to want to use Office."
How true! For all these years, we have stopped working, while waiting for them to release their allmight, indispensable software.
If you're going to call my analogies "silly", perhaps use some facts in your argument instead of conjecture. Define "sheer number"? Because I've worked for corporations like Disney, Darden, Fidelity, and NASA and to say they've invested in Office is an understatement. Also, find me one financial institution that uses iWork (numbers) over Office (Excel). You won't.
And for the millions of people in science, who depend on footnotes, references and ability to use third party reference managers like EndNote you would recommend?
Sure, it "kinda" works with Pages (I think EndNote states that it produces "unexpected results"), but scientists who are under pressure to get published to get grants are in no way interested in fiddling with software and hope that the integration works.
Add to that, the need for economists all over the world to do budgets ranging from hundreds to billions, they have no time nor interest in learning new software no matter the learning curve. They want Excel that they know and love.
Sure, for the casual home user typing a letter or even novelist writing books, Pages might be good enough, heck, I do most my typing of notes in TextEdit (although the new iCloud integration is driving me nuts!). And for people doing their home budget Numbers are surely good enough.
But really. Over the years. How many home users have actually bought a full license of Word? I'd recon it's mostly pirated software or the "home edition" bundled with the Dell they bought.
It's corporations, and mostly big corporations that pay for office, and they pay handsomely, gladly. I have no idea what my uni paid, but site license, cross platform for 10000 employees and 50000 students probably didn't come cheap.
We install iWork on every mac too as we have site license for that too, but according to my statistics, less than 1% of the users ever bother to open any of the iWork applications and if they do; they use Keynote.
I think we can conclude that Microsoft is safe. Unless they totally destroy the next version of Office, they will have no real competition.
Sure, it "kinda" works with Pages (I think EndNote states that it produces "unexpected results"), but scientists who are under pressure to get published to get grants are in no way interested in fiddling with software and hope that the integration works.
Add to that, the need for economists all over the world to do budgets ranging from hundreds to billions, they have no time nor interest in learning new software no matter the learning curve. They want Excel that they know and love.
Sure, for the casual home user typing a letter or even novelist writing books, Pages might be good enough, heck, I do most my typing of notes in TextEdit (although the new iCloud integration is driving me nuts!). And for people doing their home budget Numbers are surely good enough.
But really. Over the years. How many home users have actually bought a full license of Word? I'd recon it's mostly pirated software or the "home edition" bundled with the Dell they bought.
It's corporations, and mostly big corporations that pay for office, and they pay handsomely, gladly. I have no idea what my uni paid, but site license, cross platform for 10000 employees and 50000 students probably didn't come cheap.
We install iWork on every mac too as we have site license for that too, but according to my statistics, less than 1% of the users ever bother to open any of the iWork applications and if they do; they use Keynote.
I think we can conclude that Microsoft is safe. Unless they totally destroy the next version of Office, they will have no real competition.
When you look back at all of it the problems you'll find that they stem from a single ideology from within the business: "protect the Windows monopoly at all costs". The net result? they believe that holding back or refusing to port a product to another platform that it'll provide them with leverage to force customers to come and use Windows (Windows on the desktop, phone, tablet, laptop etc) and in turn force them to use Microsoft Office but they ignore the willingness by end users at this stage to give alternatives a go. The pulling of Office isn't sufficient enough for me to give up my preference for iOS and Mac OS X so in the end they're simply adding fuel to the alternatives such as Pages, Keynote, Numbers plus numerous alternatives that exist on Android as well.
I love my Apple products. But saying what is Microsoft and Office seems pretty... Well naiv.
Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote are useless for professionel use. Just got my self a new 27" iMac with those app's preinstalled. Boy I was disapointed. Almost no features.
Apple's computers, phones, tablets are all amazing. Have it all. But even on a Mac you need Microsoft Office. Especially Outlook since Mail stopped working after Mavericks came.