Microsoft Office Apps Top App Store Charts One Day After Release

[KPOM]

I actually got it last night shortly before the store closed at 9. There was no in store advertising about it. I read about it online and it said all you had to do was bring in an iPad they would give it to the first 50 people. The Microsoft store I went to is 2 doors down from a very busy Apple store in a mall. I'm thinking that not many people in the area knew about the promotion.

Yea, there has to be something with Amazon's pricing since it's $99 everywhere else. But Amazon usually had good prices on Norton products too, much cheaper than through Norton themselves.

There was no advertising at all around here, either (Chicago). I found out about it the night before when I read a ZDNet article. A few deal sites picked up on it, and evidently enough people knew about it here that a small line of people were waiting.

How was the experience at your store? Over here, they handed over the cards (and a set of Microsoft stickers), took down your cell phone number to send you some ads (I just replied STOP to the first), and then took your picture with a Windows phone and sent it to you. There was no hard sell of Surface or any products at the store, though one of the associates did mention, in passing, that we should check out the Dell Venue 8" the next time we're in the market (he noticed a lot of us had iPad minis - Retina or otherwise). Most of the people ahead of me just went in and right out after that. I actually did stay a few minutes as I wanted to check out the Surface keyboards. IMO, they actually are well done.

 

[AppleScruff1]

There was no advertising at all around here, either (Chicago). I found out about it the night before when I read a ZDNet article. A few deal sites picked up on it, and evidently enough people knew about it here that a small line of people were waiting.

How was the experience at your store? Over here, they handed over the cards (and a set of Microsoft stickers), took down your cell phone number to send you some ads (I just replied STOP to the first), and then took your picture with a Windows phone and sent it to you. There was no hard sell of Surface or any products at the store, though one of the associates did mention, in passing, that we should check out the Dell Venue 8" the next time we're in the market (he noticed a lot of us had iPad minis - Retina or otherwise). Most of the people ahead of me just went in and right out after that. I actually did stay a few minutes as I wanted to check out the Surface keyboards. IMO, they actually are well done.

My experience was very good. They did they same thing taking your picture and name and cell phone number. No attempt to sell at all. I've been in this store a few times checking things out and I actually got to know an employee there at a non Microsoft event several months ago. They are very friendly and helpful, much like the Apple store next door, except a bit more laid back. But the Apple store at this mall is so busy most of the time, always full of kids playing around with the iPhone and iPads. It's much easier to check out the Macs, at least when I've been there.

I think the Surface Pro 2 is an excellent product. They have a cool dock set up for it that I like. I just wish you could it with a 256GB drive and type keyboard for $999.00.

 

[driceman]

It's well worth the money to businesses and families who need it on 5 devices. It probably isn't worth it for a single user on a single device.

For businesses I could see it. For a family, even then I'm not sure an annual fee is worth the price of admission. Are there any really killer features on these that anyone's aware of that would make it worth the price?

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For me it is a godsend. I'm able to have the latest and greatest version of Office on all of my machines for a fraction of the price of buying separate licences. I guess it all depends if you need Office or not. Most people here would be happy with the handful of features in iWork and have little use to subscribe. Business and users who use Office daily, Office 365 is fantastic deal.

Most people will most likely be downloading the apps so they can view their documents on the iPad rather edit them.

I guess I just can't fathom being willing to pay $100 a year for it, unless you're a business and have tons of computers to install Office on, and I use a word processor for school and writing on a daily basis.

 

[lordofthereef]

For businesses I could see it. For a family, even then I'm not sure an annual fee is worth the price of admission. Are there any really killer features on these that anyone's aware of that would make it worth the price?

Chances are the family does't already own five licenses (or however many multiple licenses they need). If that family wants to legally have office, this is a pretty good price. Or even if they do, they may have a license so outdated that it's not worth using, or they would cause compatibility issues with current offerings.

I am not sure there are a whole lot of killer features other than those which are cloud based. I know even in grad school I had to take an office class to prove to the world that we are ready to go (or some BS like that... easiest grad class I ever took that's for sure). We essentially had to buy office. You get five licenses a year for less than the cost of a schoolbook; as a caveat in honors classes in high school a ton of students bought their books. I do know my seven year old niece is already working on power points for school (I was floored when I heard this; I was playing Oregon Trail at her age as well as Mario Teaches Typing).

You are, of course, free to pay the $140 for a single license and use that; I think this is something a lot of people (not necessarily you) are missing in this thread. I am sure there area those families who install single licenses on multiple machines; I haven't explored the authentication, but with copies as far back as 2011 on Mac I know this wasn't a problem. It's a matter of staying legal or not, I guess.

Also, your school (assuming it's a university) should have a deal for $79 for four years. You are likely to get 2-3 full version updates under that amount of time. If you truly do use this on a daily basis, I would suggest that less than $10 a month is a fantastic value. Probably much more than the smartphone you most likely also have, and likely use for leisure. Yes, I guess that was a bit presumptuous of me. Maybe I am completely wrong on that hypothesis. In my mind though, it's just a matter of priorities. I pay way more for my TV service than it is worth. Were I still in school, <$10 a month (and I am not even talking about the .edu discount, which comes out to around $1 a month! ) would be a no-brainer for me. That's probably less than I spent PER day on food my freshman year of college haha.

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The reality though, is that you don't have to buy Mac:Office twice to put it on both your Macs, regardless of technical legality.

If you are going that route, you don't have to buy it to install it at all, right?

I get where you are coming from. I, too, have moral issues with how things are legally licensed. But it is what it is.

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I'm lucky, I've got 4 Apple stores and a Microsoft store with 30 minutes of where I live. If I stretch it to 45 minutes, 3 Microsoft stores and probably 7 Apple stores. And a Microcenter too. You should consider moving.

That's because Boston is probably one of the best places in the US to live. But I am biased.

 

[AdonisSMU]

By that logic you should have fired your entire original workforce -- you know, because they were experienced in Office and not iWork. But you didn't, because that would be stupid. Just as stupid as rejecting those proficient in Office who could clearly learn any new system.

Which makes me doubt your entire story. Bro.

You can doubt his story all you want but you aren't running his business.

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On another note, I had to delete Excel almost as soon as I downloaded it because the first thing it did was crash. I thought to myself why did I download something I don't need? Then I decided not to download anything else.

 

[497902]

There are people still using Mac:Office 2008 or even 2004. They are still able to create documents. There is really no compelling reason to update every version, or even every other version.

There might be no compelling reason to upgrade to every version, but 2008 and 2004 have long reached their end of support date. So there are no security updates either.

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Who the hell needs Office on three Macs for personal use?

It's not only Macs, but also PCs and tablets. Calculating all those devices together many people have at least 3-4. You can also go with iWork, Google Docs, online Office, ...

You can come up with any kind of scenario, it doesn't mean it's a real world one. For the overwhelming majority of people, paying $99/yr for life is far more expensive. It's amazing you people are so willing to subscribe to software, and that's exactly what they want you to do, because it puts more money in their pocket. You become a never ending annual stream of revenue to them indefinitely. No way no how I will ever subscribe to software or ever find it a "value".

You do what you want and if you'd like to give Microsoft more cash or use multiple devices illegally with only one licence, go for it. I already stated to you that with 2 or 3 devices it's far cheaper to go with 365 and even if you skip one version it would still be cheaper when using 4 or 5 devices. Using one version forever is also a bad idea because Office for Mac goes end of support after 5 years.

 

[jadot]

Surely this is a win for Apple.

Office will be as popular as it ever was with PC users finally feeling at home on IOS if they weren't already. Some people will buy an iPad just because Office is now available. Some users will already have a subscription, some will buy into the monthly charge.

But now Apple is also taking revenue direct from Microsoft sales. It's easy to see this as a landmark statement in the history of the two companies.

And the consumer wins.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Two weeks ago I was using the following combination of software and services:

• Evernote premium
• Dropbox (100GB)

Now, I cancelled Dropbox and Evernote, have OneDrive with almost 50GB (I don't need more than 10-20GB), and use OneNote instead of Evernote. On top of that I get 5 licenses of Office and the ability to edit documents on the go on my iPad, if the need arises.
I pay for that 99$/year. How much does Evernote Premium and Dropbox cost? If you think about it like that, then the 99$/year for Office premium is not a bad deal.

I use Office only professionally. My private documents are not that complex, and I use iWork for that.
That way I get the best of all worlds.

That's a good point!

I wish people would stop worrying about the price of Office 365... and look around at other things that they might have a yearly subscription to.

 

[497902]

That's a good point!

I wish people would stop worrying about the price of Office 365... and look around at other things that they might have a yearly subscription to.

Oh and on Amazon Office 365 only costs 2/3 of the normal price.

 

[IGregory]

I can't believe the people who are falling for this subscription crap. Really? You want to pay for it every year for LIFE? You're falling right into their trap.

When I buy software I keep it up to date. So what's the difference between paying for yearly upgrades and paying a yearly subscription.

 

[maflynn]

I don't like subscriptions either, but it's way cheaper if you want to install on multiple devices. Plus you can upgrade to the latest version for free and there's 20 GB free cloud space.

I agree, You're getting value for the 99 dollars. The more I interact with office and use OneDrive, the more I like it.

One thing I want to answer is if I subscribed to Office 365 for the year (I'm on a monthly subscription) will MS provide the new version of Office for Mac for us without any increased charge.

 

[petvas]

That's a good point!

I wish people would stop worrying about the price of Office 365... and look around at other things that they might have a yearly subscription to.

I just need to revise my opinion about OneDrive. It is not as good as Dropbox on a Mac. It doesn't use symbolic links, doesn't sync OS metadata and is slow. I still use Dropbox. That doesn't mean that the Office subscription is bad, but the value preposition is not as good as before.

 

[macspecial]

Previous account-users don't really count

The level of adoption alone is misleading. The level of installed persons who then buy the one year for $ 99 is relevant. If you already have a regular such account paid for (by your company or because you opted it for other reasons) of course I’d take a free add-on in that case.

 

[maflynn]

It doesn't use symbolic links, doesn't sync OS metadata and is slow. I still use Dropbox.

What metadata? I agree its slower, then dropbox, and I'll use dropbox for my other needs but for my document synchronization OneDrive is ok

 

[petvas]

What metadata? I agree its slower, then dropbox, and I'll use dropbox for my other needs but for my document synchronization OneDrive is ok

Tags for example don't sync.

Add to that the lack of support for symbolic links..
With Dropbox I don't have to put everything under the folder Dropbox. I create links under they dropbox folder that point to my folders on my disks. That way I can keep my folder structure and sync my files. It works really great. OneDrive doesn't support that..

 

[maflynn]

Tags for example don't sync.

Gotcha, I don't use tags, so its probably not a major problem but as I posted, it is slower then dropbox.

 

[petvas]

Gotcha, I don't use tags, so its probably not a major problem but as I posted, it is slower then dropbox.

I have tried to like OneDrive, I like some of Microsoft's software and services and would very much like to get rid of Dropbox, but the lack of these features is a problem for me. I will keep my Dropbox account, but at least I got rid of Evernote since I use OneNote now. (which I like a lot, despite its weaknesses on the Mac).

 

[maflynn]

I haven't tried OneNote yet, but I'll probably start playing with that today.

Since I'm on the free low storage amount of DropBox, I'll take the performance drop on OneDrive since it gives me a lot more of storage over Dropbox

 

[petvas]

I haven't tried OneNote yet, but I'll probably start playing with that today.

Since I'm on the free low storage amount of DropBox, I'll take the performance drop on OneDrive since it gives me a lot more of storage over Dropbox

I would also do that, but the compromises are too much for me.
OneNote is great, mainly because of its UI. The Windows version is still much better, but I hope Microsoft brings a new update with Office 2014. There are serious omissions on the current version but I can live without them.

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The level of adoption alone is misleading. The level of installed persons who then buy the one year for $ 99 is relevant. If you already have a regular such account paid for (by your company or because you opted it for other reasons) of course I’d take a free add-on in that case.

Of course it's important how good Office subscriptions are selling, but don't forget, some people want to have a great Office viewer on their mobile devices. Up until now all Office compatible programs sucked. At least now users can be assured that they can read Office documents on the go.
To be honest here, how many people would seriously use their iPad for long edits of any kind of documents???
The fact that Office are number 1 in the charts shows the big interest of the people..

 

[Dontazemebro]

About time but for $99/year I'll pass. I'm not about to fatten Microsoft's coffers, that's way too much.

 

[Bibbler]

And you know that everyone at Samsung is required to use Office. Using Pages is grounds for immediate termination.

Using a nonstandard, non approved application is grounds for termination from just about any major corporation in this country - and for good reason.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

That's a good point!

I wish people would stop worrying about the price of Office 365... and look around at other things that they might have a yearly subscription to.

Only a fool would not consider the cost of Office 365. One may end up concluding its of value, but certainly he/she needs to evaluate cost:benefit and their budget before jumping in. The idea "people subscribe to lots of things, what's one more" is financially reckless.

Honestly, I can't really see why anyone would spend the $120 per year for personal use. That represents a massive increase over the old "Home and Student" edition, and for features that most consumers will never use. Office 2011 itself is overkill for personal use and 20GB of free cloud is not that hard to come by. I have 20GB on dropbox and 50GB on Box that I never pay a dime for.

Business use is a different discussion, but for consumer/personal use I see few justifications of spending $120/year ad infinitum for mere access to word processor, presentation and spreadsheet apps when there are lower cost alternatives available.

 

[peterdevries]

I'm glad that office is now available for iPad too, but they will have to wait for my subscription until they have finally updated the current abomination of Office 2011 for mac. I just finished my MBA thesis and this package has cost me countless hours of dealing with standard Word bugs such as jumping bullet indentation, chapter numbering inflexibility and other formatting hell.

 

[maflynn]

Honestly, I can't really see why anyone would spend the $120 per year for personal use.

Where do you get 120, its 99 bucks

 

[Carl Sagan]

And then you have the people who complain about those people, and OH GOD IT NEVER ENDS!

That's the point, it's irrational, it's childish and it serves no purpose of value.