The opportunity to make money on the iPad has always been greater than the Surface money pit. Microsoft has been suffering from poor leadership (and not just at Balmer's level) for over a decade.
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Microsoft Office for iPad Awaiting Completion of 'Touch First' Interface for Windows Version
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The opportunity to make money on the iPad has always been greater than the Surface money pit. Microsoft has been suffering from poor leadership (and not just at Balmer's level) for over a decade.
No reason for it to be that price anyway. Apples Versions are not free for new devices and only £27 for existing. And they have brilliant touch controls.
Lets be serious, MS will just do rush jop of this, and seeing as there PC version isn't all that great, I see this just being a mess.
No, it's because for a large number of people Office is still the BEST solution. OpenOffice and iWork are great if you basically don't need a lot, but Office just plain is more complex than either of them. Well, more complex than iWork and just plain better than OpenOffice.
Open office has a lot of UI issues. Like most FOSS it has been designed by Geeks and for Geeks. It could be good, but it needs a lot of help.
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It really is a bit early to proclaim office is dead. If they were to go another couple of years without a real product on mobile devices people actually use they would start to hurt. As things stand now, they still have time to enter the market and keep their hold.
If you don't see the difference between neutered iWork and even what Windows RT has as Office, then there's simply no reasoning with you.
I agree altho...$49.99 wouldn't be close to 'pure profit'. Take Apple's cut and you're down to $34.99. Take development costs and you're into massive minuses until you sell X millions of copies. Financially it's not going to be a goldmine.
LOL im sorry dude, but Office is single biggest over-hyped set of applications going. I mean - how long have we had word processor applications? Since BBS's and before the internet. Why would I feel compelled to re-buy something each year( and begin renting it with Office 365) that has not dramatically changed in function or scope since the mid 90's.
Outlook is such a piece. Their search functionality really arrived in 2013. I mean c'mon. Have you ever wrestled with .pst files. Kill_me_now.
Now you have pointed out Office's _relevance_ and have not really been defending the applications. So please don't misunderstand me to be flaming you. However I take issue with the perpetuation of the idea that only one "Suite" of tools (that are themselves decades old in all reality) can be relevant in the modern corporation.
And the argument that "only Office can open Office files" that people make is the most amusing.
iWork is free on new devices, and iCloud.com gives you free access to the web-based iWork. I can make a document in iWork and send it to anyone with MS Office. They can send it back to me and I can open it, edit it, export it, and send it back.
So who freakin' cares about Office for the iPad. Microsloth tried to play the old game of using Office as a wedge, but times have changed. Once again too late to make an impact, too lost to know how to get back on track.
So who freakin' cares about Office for the iPad. Microsloth tried to play the old game of using Office as a wedge, but times have changed. Once again too late to make an impact, too lost to know how to get back on track.
>It's just a word processor
Actually, this should be where I stop. You're bringing it down to the bare minimum, acting like all word processors are the same and can do the same things. Have fun typing up a 10 page document on TextEdit, I guess, since it's "just a word processor".
>Buying Office every year
Weird, because they came out with a version in 2010 and then 2014.
>Renting Office
Office 365 does provide more than simply Office, but I'll let that slide.
>You haven't been talking about what Office provides
Office, to me, provides a few things. I like the SkyDrive integration that comes with it and 8.1. I like the ribbon interface. When it comes to word, I find that is has the best spell-check and the best grammar check. It keeps my formatting better if I move my work to a WSYIWYG website.
My defense of what Office actually does is to say that it does more and more efficiently than the competition.
You do realize that iWork has some font issues when it comes to Office, right? And there have been quite a few documents that I had to send to my teachers again because iWork-made documents didn't render right on their older version of Office.
If this is going to happen I guarantee Apple will be taking no money off of Microsoft's Margins. Microsoft would demand them to remove their cut, and in return Apple gains a big selling point for their device.
You know, it is a great thing that the people of MacRumors are in no position of power at Microsoft.
On MS Word:
Hey I get that you feel like MS Office's version of the word processor is fundamentally better than any other word processor. I have no idea how you could think that and I do fundamentally disagree. But hey - that would be the "just the bare minimum" view. That's totally ignoring the mystique i do admit.
On Outlook:
See above - the worst email/contact manager going.
On Excel:
Its a spreadsheet. Can you do vertical-lookups and pivot tables elsewhere? Sure can.
On Power Point:
No comment.
On Skydrive integration:
That's not bad, but certainly not unique.
In summation:
Like whatever you want. I don't care.
But the hype about MS Office is Just Too Damn High.
Right on point. Considering I don't have an air any more because of the small issues with windows and Why would I use Iwork? anyways when I use office at work and school
I think there are LOTS of reasons why MS hasn't released Office on the iPad...in no particular order after point 1:
1)MS Office is MS' golden key to a large percentage of revenue. Those $199-$399 copies of Office (and recently the subscription services that many software companies are shifting toward) are not going to sell for those prices on an iPad when 99.999% of iPad apps are under $2.00 and handful top out at $20. Do you really think MS is going to start selling Office for $10-$30 on the iPad?
2)Real world use. We all know (many on this forum will not admit) that the iPad (or any other tablet) is NOT designed for typing anything longer than a sentence or 2. The virtual keyboards are fair, at best. I've been typing over 100 words/min since I was in 8th grade yet the iPad tops me out at maybe 20 words/min. Sure, I can go plunk down $70+ for a keyboard...but even those are kind of small. So since MS Office's audience are typists/authors/reviewers, tablets are just a bad idea unless you are willing to sell it for pennies. Yes, I am aware that some people use Office just to view/read materials, but they are wasting money when tons of free Office-compatible apps have been around for over a decade. Heck, even MS gives away free Office "readers" on their website...and has been for 10+ years.
3)If MS starts selling Office (again, let's say at the cheapo prices that iPad apps typically sell for) on the iPad, then there is RISK that a fair percentage of the Office users will <gulp> never need Windows again now that their #1 app is on a tablet that may or may not be made by Microsoft. So MS, as a company, has to worry about the risk of a)selling Office for pennies now AND b)people that may never need/want to go back to a full Windows desktop/laptop...that percentage could be as high as 20% of their Office licensees. Do you see Apple selling its apps on Windows? Nope. If Apple had sold iPhoto (or maybe even all of iLife) 7 years ago, 1/2 the consumer Mac owners would never have bought a Mac because iLife rocked and you could only get it on a Mac...but if it was available for $199-$399 on Windows, so many Mac users would not have bought that Mac...remember, it's about the apps, not about the operating system...but we're getting off track.
4)Of course MS (like Apple did with the iPod in the beginning) doesn't want to offer an app on its competitor's hardware (at least before their own hardware/platform has a solid adoption rate). That's very obvious. And every technology company follows the same procedure.
1)MS Office is MS' golden key to a large percentage of revenue. Those $199-$399 copies of Office (and recently the subscription services that many software companies are shifting toward) are not going to sell for those prices on an iPad when 99.999% of iPad apps are under $2.00 and handful top out at $20. Do you really think MS is going to start selling Office for $10-$30 on the iPad?
2)Real world use. We all know (many on this forum will not admit) that the iPad (or any other tablet) is NOT designed for typing anything longer than a sentence or 2. The virtual keyboards are fair, at best. I've been typing over 100 words/min since I was in 8th grade yet the iPad tops me out at maybe 20 words/min. Sure, I can go plunk down $70+ for a keyboard...but even those are kind of small. So since MS Office's audience are typists/authors/reviewers, tablets are just a bad idea unless you are willing to sell it for pennies. Yes, I am aware that some people use Office just to view/read materials, but they are wasting money when tons of free Office-compatible apps have been around for over a decade. Heck, even MS gives away free Office "readers" on their website...and has been for 10+ years.
3)If MS starts selling Office (again, let's say at the cheapo prices that iPad apps typically sell for) on the iPad, then there is RISK that a fair percentage of the Office users will <gulp> never need Windows again now that their #1 app is on a tablet that may or may not be made by Microsoft. So MS, as a company, has to worry about the risk of a)selling Office for pennies now AND b)people that may never need/want to go back to a full Windows desktop/laptop...that percentage could be as high as 20% of their Office licensees. Do you see Apple selling its apps on Windows? Nope. If Apple had sold iPhoto (or maybe even all of iLife) 7 years ago, 1/2 the consumer Mac owners would never have bought a Mac because iLife rocked and you could only get it on a Mac...but if it was available for $199-$399 on Windows, so many Mac users would not have bought that Mac...remember, it's about the apps, not about the operating system...but we're getting off track.
4)Of course MS (like Apple did with the iPod in the beginning) doesn't want to offer an app on its competitor's hardware (at least before their own hardware/platform has a solid adoption rate). That's very obvious. And every technology company follows the same procedure.
MS Office is essential for my work - Open Office and Apple's products don't even come close (e.g., ever try to do a 172,000-row PivotTable in anything other than Excel?). In any case, if Office is released for the iPad, I'd buy it. However, as for paying a yearly fee for Office 365 or whatever they call it, well, it will be a cold day in hell before I do that.
I wonder whether Microsoft is waiting so long that it's going to make Office irrelevant. A year and a half ago, I would have loved to have the ability to use a simplified Word and Excel on an iPad. This year, I'd still like it, but I'm finding alternatives. If they wait another year and a half, maybe enough people will find alternatives that they might not be willing to pay a high price for Office. Meanwhile, lots of people are also going the Google Docs route. I wouldn't be surprised if this had the effect of killing desktop Office sales eventually, too.
Yes they do need a separate division (And I welcome Office for iPad)....
At the same time, Apple needs to break into separate companies as well. As a long time Mac user I would love to see Macintosh, Inc. As much as I like my iDevices, I don't believe the Mac Line is receiving the support and attention it deserves. JMO
No, the hype for Office is well deserved. As you said, you're a bare minimum type of guy. If you had more than just the bare minimum requirements, you'd see what I see.
+10
I'm sure the clones are ok for everyday/home user but I would never send a document to a client in anything other than OFFICE format. I send out a lot of excel spreadsheets and while the "open offices" and "Numbers" of the world will save in that format, I would never risk having a spreadsheet or document not opening correctly... I suppose they would be OK if all you are doing is emailing out pdf's, but a lot of what I do is a collaborative effort. I switched from 1-2-3 to Excel in about 1990, and would never change now unless a new standard takes over the market..
I don't see that happening anytime soon...
But, seriously, why can't they have Office 365 for iPad so I can present PPT's instead of using my iPhone?
I can't get over the single machine, not just single user, license of Office 2013. In a large company this really adds up when you have to upgrade hardware or restore a box to dissimilar hardware.