Microsoft Office Apps Top App Store Charts One Day After Release

[jlc1978]

Well, if someone works in an environment where Office is the standard, then this is a big help. There was a time not so long ago that even having an apple product was complicated due to cross platform compatibility and domination by windows pc's.

Roger that. I opened a file in PowerPoint and it, unlike many other programs, didn't mangle some parts. Slide show has a laser pointer mode that would be useful when presenting. If it does animations and video it could replace running PP on a Mac. Even if I don't subscribe, being able to accurately reproduce Office documents is a big plus.

As for the price, MS has a $69 version as well for people who only will us it on one set of devices.

----------

Not unless you have your university's email and password login for their office 365 account


Which I HIGHLY doubt they make available to it's students

Actually it appears MS has redone licensing terms to allow that; or actually can use school accounts to get it for free.

 

[KPOM]

This late in the day I would be surprised if there were any of those left...

Yes. I arrived at the Microsoft store in downtown Chicago around 9:45am (it opens at 10:00) and was about 8th in line. When it opened at 10:00 there were around 30 in line. I suspect by 10:10 they were gone.

That said, Amazon has Office 365 subscriptions for $67. If you are going to use it on a Mac, an iPad, and perhaps a PC, it's a decent deal.

 

[Mr. Dee]

There is no modern Office on Windows 8, only regular desktop Office.

 

[KPOM]

Office for Surface right now is just a warmed over version of Office for Windows. It wasn't built from the ground up for a touch interface. It's in progress, and we'll probably find out more next week at the Build conference, but it isn't here yet. The big news from yesterday, as far as Office is concerned, is that Apple released a native touch-driven version of their office suite for an Apple product first (much as Office was originally a Mac product).

 

[kds1]

Is that like my iTunes purchases that I can't share with anyone without allowing them access to my account or authorizing their device on my account even though I purchased the music, video etc and supposedly own it? That's a trap too, isn't it?

No, it's not the same, because you're not paying an annual subscription for those purchases, that's why they are called purchases. In addition, iTunes Plus music can be shared.

 

[a0me]

Umm, how about just letting me BUY the damn software rather than yearly subscription BS.

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.

I think the real argument is: do you really need MS Office?
At work 95% of our clients request it and that's also what 100% of our suppliers work with, which mean that we have to buy licenses (almost) every time a new version is released.
At home? I use Google Docs and iWork because I don't need all of the more advanced Office functionality, and I don't need 100% compatibility with whatever word processing or spreadsheet software my friends are using.

On the other hand, if you need MS Office, you can either get Office Home 2013 for 1 PC at $139.99 a pop, or Office 365 Home Premium for 5 PCs or Macs plus up to 5 tablets at $99.99 per year.
If you only need Office on one of your PC and you don't need to upgrade to the new version of Office when it comes out, the standalone version is definitely the better choice. But if you need Office on more than one device or you upgrade frequently, the subscription model seems to make more sense.

 

[FasterQuieter]

I downloaded it, launched it, entered all my info into the many many create account fields. It said my password needed to have numbers and special characters. This would have meant switching to 1Password to create/memorize a fancy password. Thus ended my curiosity about office and I deleted it.

 

[nia820]

Guess the people who said "Microsoft was too late to the game" were wrong.

 

[AppleScruff1]

No, it's not the same, because you're not paying an annual subscription for those purchases, that's why they are called purchases. In addition, iTunes Plus music can be shared.

They're purchases with restricted rights of use. I can't burn an episode of Breaking Bad to a dvd to share with a friend. An Apple trap.

 

[garylapointe]

What incentive does Apple have to do tis? It's already been made free. Why would they dump a bunch of resources into making their free software better?

That makes no sense.

It's not free, it's practically part of the operating system now.
If it comes with everything, it's like mail/calendar/safari/iMovie/address book/etc/etc...

Don't forget.... The operating system is free now too!

Gary

 

[lordofthereef]

There is no modern Office on Windows 8, only regular desktop Office.

I see... you are referring to touch input.

I was going to say... Windows has never been without office.

----------

That makes no sense.

It's not free, it's practically part of the operating system now.
If it comes with everything, it's like mail/calendar/safari/iMovie/address book/etc/etc...

Don't forget.... The operating system is free now too!

Gary

Sure it makes sense. It was never a selling point. If it was a selling point, they wouldn't have reacted by making the dang suite free - and they did this oh so very recently. It's also not pre-packaged, nor is it really advertised. It's just there, if you know where to look.

Also, how long has the suite been around now? In almost every way it's inferior to office. It always has been. I just don't see Apple dumping a ton of resources into making it that much better being that they haven't thought to do this thus far.

----------

Umm, how about just letting me BUY the damn software rather than yearly subscription BS.

A PC or Mac license runs $140. But yes, you get to keep it.

So... would you drop $140 (or even $100) to keep it forever, but just on your iPad? If not, what would be a fair price?

 

[rowspaxe]

Cant understand the backlash here. This appears to a very well implemented touch version of the office suite that is free for Office subscribers. Once you get to the point in life where ypur turning around legal paperwork--office is indespensible. If its not worth $99 to you, it probrably isnt worth $10 dollors to you. You either need or your dont

 

[kds1]

They're purchases with restricted rights of use. I can't burn an episode of Breaking Bad to a dvd to share with a friend. An Apple trap.

In case you haven't noticed, physical media is a dinosaur.

 

[AppleScruff1]

In case you haven't noticed, physical media is a dinosaur.

I haven't noticed that at all. I paid for Breaking Bad on iTunes and I can't burn it to DVD to lend to a friend. I can rent a BluRay from Redbox for $1.50. How much to rent an HD movie from iTunes? $3.99? $4.99? A trap.

 

[kds1]

I haven't noticed that at all. I paid for Breaking Bad on iTunes and I can't burn it to DVD to lend to a friend. I can rent a BluRay from Redbox for $1.50. How much to rent an HD movie from iTunes? $3.99? $4.99? A trap.

I'd rather pay $3.99 for an instant rental on iTunes than to schlep down to some Redbox machine somewhere and then schlep it back home again, and then the same to return it. My time and effort is worth more to me.

 

[petvas]

A few questions if y'all don't mind...

With 365 Home Premium I can split the $100 between myself and 4 others right?

We can install the latest version of the desktop suite on each of our own PC or Macs?

Each of us can also use the "full" features of the iPad versions in addition to the desktop versions by signing in with our own email addresses?

We each have our own 20gb SkyDrive accessible by only that individual via email address?

If all are yes, this may not be so bad of a deal for $20 each per year.

Yes, exactly like that it is. You can share a subscription with up to 4 additional people. Everyone gets his own OneDrive space, but you share the 5 licenses for PC & Mac. The primary holder of the subscription also gets 60 Skype minutes/month for calls.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I'd rather pay $3.99 for an instant rental on iTunes than to schlep down to some Redbox machine somewhere and then schlep it back home again, and then the same to return it. My time and effort is worth more to me.

I'm sure it is.

 

[edgonzalez32]

Hmm I'm shocked by a lot of the comments here. I'm sure there are A LOT of PC users who use an iPad. If they have an Office Subscription wouldn't getting this on their iPad be logical?

What about pro users? I'm sorry but iWork is not a pro suite. Excel alone is much better. Again, if I own Office, this would make sense to purchase.

 

[MyopicPaideia]

Thanks - I will give it another try over the weekend. But I guess even with subscription, you won't be able to save to back from where you opened it from (probably due to lack of Apple API support for that) ?

Truth, and this is a nasty limitation. In iWork, the share up arrow includes an "open in another app" option which allows you to export, or "save as" to any other app in the native format, the respective MS Office format, or PDF. This allows you to save back into Dropbox, for example, so you could go into Dropbox, open with Keynote, work on it, and then save it back into Dropbox. This isn't possible with Office for iPad or iPhone. You can even work on something in iWork and export it directly to Office for iPad now.

Corporate America runs on Office... many of us are acutely aware of that fact ever day when we go to work (like it or not). I probably can't use it anyway because it probably can't access my company's internal drives or SharePoint sites.

The "Add a Place" option in the respective Office apps does include adding Sharepoint urls. If there is anything MS tries to cover its bases on, it is the corporate environment. Probably not your company's internal network drives, though!

 

[doelcm82]

Cant understand the backlash here. This appears to a very well implemented touch version of the office suite that is free for Office subscribers. Once you get to the point in life where ypur turning around legal paperwork--office is indespensible. If its not worth $99 to you, it probrably isnt worth $10 dollors to you. You either need or your dont

I definitely wouldn't pay $10,000 for Office. But if it's worth $99 to you it probably is worth $10,000.00. You either need it or you don't, and if you need it you'll take out a second mortgage to get it.

As for me, I'd have bought it for $10 or even $10 each for Word and Excel. I might have even paid $20 each. I just don't expect to edit $99.00 a year's worth of documents on my iPad, and the other stuff that comes with the subscription doesn't make it worth the money to me either. I have iCloud, Google Drive, and Dropbox nagging me about increasing my cloud storage. I don't want another plugin in Finder.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

"So...uh. What does your company do"?

"Oh, we manually stimulate livestock for purposes of artificial insemination".

"Yeah, I guess you don't need Office for that".

"You still gotta keep records, man. That's why we use Google Docs. It's the future, you know. Quit living in the past".

+1 for your Clerks reference

 

[itbeme]

Stop living in the 90's

I know plenty of folks who work for a Fortune 100 companies and have stopped using office in all but absolute necessary situations. Evernote, DropBox, Notes, iPad native apps and beyond - the future.

Unless we're looking backwards and desperately trying to hold on, why worship MS Office ? Microsoft was silly to try to get into the tablet business. Weren't they at one time a software company ? They should have gotten over this "Gates vs Jobs" rivalry thing and left the tablet to Apple and made 100% sure that Office and the other apps were modernized on the platforms of today and tomorrow.

Too little, too late. People have (gradually but steadily) moved on to other platforms.

Rgds

 

[Icaras]

I haven't noticed that at all. I paid for Breaking Bad on iTunes and I can't burn it to DVD to lend to a friend. I can rent a BluRay from Redbox for $1.50. How much to rent an HD movie from iTunes? $3.99? $4.99? A trap.

Your opinion. I rent all the time on iTunes. Love the convenience.

Like the poster that you quoted mentioned, some people just value convenience more than sheer price difference. Different folks, different strokes.

I don't see any trap here. Stop spouting nonsense.

 

[malloc]

Microsoft are great at writing software, far better than Apple.

What kind of crap is Apple making that's even worse than Windows? A bunch of hippies programming Linux-based OSs and posting them as free downloads do a better job than Microsoft does. I know Mavericks was a disappointment, but it wasn't a disaster.

The one quality program Microsoft has over Apple is Excel. Maybe Word in some ways (like features), but I've stopped using it in favor of Pages for personal use because Word was too slow and unstable.

 

[alphonseM]

Anyone else impressed with their new style? I kind of like it and defintely don't understand the general dislike of MS in this thread. Office for iPad/iPhone is just another option - an impressive one in terms of design and functionality if you ask me.

Satya Nadella presents Office for iPad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e58EhqnB-x0