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Office for iPad is not meant to be a primary installation of the software. The idea is that 99% of the people who install it already have it installed somewhere else and are using existing 365 subscriptions to use the iPad version. Office for iPad is just an additional reason to go over to the 365 subscription model, not the primary one.

That is of course after Microsoft has converted most of the Office user base over to the subscription model, of course. I am well aware that there is a huge user base still not on that model. The new Mac version of Office will follow the subscription model. If you don't have Office installed somewhere else using a 365 subscription then you probably aren't all that interested in having Office on your iPad anyway, as the majority reaction to this thread has shown.

The advantage to the subscritpion model is that you can install and use many instances of the software in a cross platform format without having to have a separate license for each one. The incremental cost of Office on iPad for a current 365 subscriber is $0.00. Unsure how the 365 subscriptions work for corporate customers, though, but if they are volume licensed subscriptions, could one not just log in with the employer's corporate login and not have to pay for a home use license at all?

That all being said, as the CFO of my small company, we have moved over to iWork completely, and have only old legacy files still on the MS platform. The only use case we have left that cannot be done is pivot tables we need for a couple of KPI reports we need to do. And we do a lot of complicated spreadsheets. Using Numbers requires one to rethink the workflow so in the beginning you have to be open to change, because it is based on objects rather than endless tabbed tables as in Excel. A very fundamentally different take on things, but easily just as effective once you get used to it. Now all our spreadsheet work is done on easier to navigate and understand formats that are also coincidentally much nicer to look at!

We do still have one Board Member who has stuck to MS - I semd him HTML or PDF versions of the reports instead, and if he asks for data he can play with I export him an excel file, and his only comment is why we can't make it look as good in Excel/Powerpoint as we do in Numbers/Keynote.
 
Office365 isn't an online browser based app. It's the same native install as Office you can buy off the shelves, except it makes monthly checks for a subscription, and you get a ton of Skydrive storage along with it.

Thank you but I already knew that. What I said is that it looks like Office 365 hosted in the Cloud, like some already existing iOS Apps have been doing for previous versions of Office for the past two years or so.
 
It took Apple 4 years to go from iWork 09 to the current version of iWork which was released last Fall. There was no iWork release in 2010, 2011, or 2012. So if it can take Apple 4 years to re-architect iWork, even after the fact that they already had a native version of iWork for iPad, then it stands to reason that it can take MS 4 years to develop a native version of Office for iPad.

And you have to take into consideration that MS Office (with the exception of PowerPoint) is much more sophisticated than iWork, used by at least a half a billion people, and has massive 3rd party developer support.

Just because there were 4 years between iWork versions doesn't mean it was actively being developed for all 4 years. It's not like Apple wanted to release it after 2 years but it was taking too long. That's like saying that a band with 4 years between each album spent all 4 years actively working on it. Maybe they just didn't want to release a new version for a myriad of reasons. While I'm sure they are always working on software, I'm sure they could have released it in under 4 years if they wanted to; they just didn't want to. Just because there are x number of years between releases doesn't mean that that's how long it took them to make it, or that they couldn't have done it in less if they wanted to.
 
I use aan external keyboard/case on my iPad and it works great. Don't need a crappy surface, but whatever MS homer.
I use a Logitech ultrathin keyboard cover with my iPad 4, it too works great. I do however miss bluetooth mouse support, removable storage, USB port, HDMI, and accessible file system to use locally stored data amongst different applications. It is during those times that my Surface 2 comes in handy.

As for MS Office for iPad, I think that it will be very beneficial for furthering iPad usage in the Enterprise. In that context, a subscription-based service is not a hurdle. Personally, I only purchase my software, not rent it.

I like what Apple is doing with iWorks in attempting to bring the OSX and iOS versions into parity. Not fast enough for my likes. I see firsthand, the benefits of having MS Office on my Surface and notebook. For those who have an iPad, a for-purchase version of MS Office would be very helpful.
 
Have you ever used them? Because they're not.

And why would it need to be compatible with PowerPoint in the first place? If you're going to say that you want to be able to play it on a PC for work or something, iCloud.com.

Yes, I've used them. They're vastly underpowered compared to their Office counterparts.

And have you never shared a PP between classmates or coworkers for a presentation? Nobody wants to work with the guy that just has to use Keynote and screw up everyone else's formatting.
 
Better than numbers?

Has anyone used Numbers on the Mac for serious business purposes? Why wouldn't Mac want to promote its own spreadsheet tools versus Excel?
 
Has anyone used Numbers on the Mac for serious business purposes? Why wouldn't Mac want to promote its own spreadsheet tools versus Excel?

Numbers can't support pivot tables nor Gantt charts. So no, at least for me, it's not a viable option.
 
Can you give an example for me please? An example personal to you. I'm genuinely interested in your usage requirements.

Personally, I can't see a need to ever send a pages/ doc to be edited by a third party. With all of the collaboration tools available currently (google docs/ iWork/ office subscriptions), I feel the days of sending files for editing via email are long gone when there are much better alternatives.

As for the compatibility argument that some people have raised - I have Office for Mac. It's cross compatibility between Office for windows isn't that good - often times breaking formatting.

Sure, I write academic papers with coauthors. I may take the lead on a portion of the paper, but when I am done, I send the document to my coauthors to edit, and add their portion to it. We usually use the track changes function so that I can see what they have done and decide to accept it or reject it.

Tools like Google docs are nice, but I also have software that integrates with Word that manages my references. So when I add a citation, it automatically puts it in the reference section, etc.

Maybe there are tools out there that are able to accomplish this same thing without emailing Word docs, but all my coauthors are familiar with Word whether they are Mac users or Windows users.
 
Numbers can't support pivot tables nor Gantt charts. So no, at least for me, it's not a viable option.

That's true, but for those using a spreadsheet tool on the iPad, I would imagine that you wouldn't be doing advanced analysis or modeling. I can see the main use case being managing a list of data, maybe adding some filters here and there.

I guess the brand name of Excel outweighs the utility for something homegrown (Numbers) for Apple.
 
Too Little - Too Late

I might have bought this a few years ago, but not now.

And if it requires a subscription then Hell will freeze over before I part with any cash.:eek:
 
Since my business rely on Apple products, my bad time (and down time) has been reduced by 70% in comparison when we were relying on Microsoft products...

So yeah, if it's the price to pay, I'm perfectly fine by that ;)

Just wait til apple stop the software without warning and no longer support it.
 
Collage??

too late for OneNote and too late for this too. Evernote is now the standard for note taking. Almost everyone is using it in our collage. Office for iPad was heavily needed a couple years ago but not now. iWork apps do the %99 of people's need.

Perhaps everyone in your "collage" using Evernote has led to the misspelling of college? :)
 
I use a Logitech ultrathin keyboard cover with my iPad 4, it too works great. I do however miss bluetooth mouse support, removable storage, USB port, HDMI, and accessible file system to use locally stored data amongst different applications. It is during those times that my Surface 2 comes in handy.

As for MS Office for iPad, I think that it will be very beneficial for furthering iPad usage in the Enterprise. In that context, a subscription-based service is not a hurdle. Personally, I only purchase my software, not rent it.

I like what Apple is doing with iWorks in attempting to bring the OSX and iOS versions into parity. Not fast enough for my likes. I see firsthand, the benefits of having MS Office on my Surface and notebook. For those who have an iPad, a for-purchase version of MS Office would be very helpful.

Nope. Polaris works fine for our organization along with Keynote, Office not needed.
 
BWAHAHAHAHA.
During this whole thread you act as if Office for iPad will be on par with the Windows RT/8 version. Since the Mac version isn't even as advanced you can most likely forget about the one on iOS. Based on the current iPhone version of Office, iWork might very well be the better solution. In any case you can't say for sure until it's been released.
 
Hup

I wonder if it will be offered through MS's Home Use Program (HUP) that many companies offer employees. Many people at our work purchase Office through that program, and while they are the latest versions of Office (both PC & Mac available for individual purchase ~$10 each ) they are not part of the Office 365 subscriptions.

HUP Link: https://hup.microsoft.com/
 
Not that I would use it, but I'm curious how much it will be stripped down and how the UI will be like. Ribbon? lol

If they come up with a full featured first version I would be impressed.
 
Office is an anachronistic clerical suite for clerks who do clerical tasks. Deluded 'power users' are clerks, stuck with using plebeian software designed in the 1990s. There is nothing professional about Office.

Office is to modern software what the fax machine was to email when it first launched...the dinosaurs said the fax machine would never die and claimed that they were the special people who needed faxes to do professional business.

There are always people stuck with misplaced reliance on old technology.

I do agree with you as far as the text processor goes. Word and many of it's imitations like Pages, Writer all have wrong foundation as far as the laying out the text on the page. They all default to typewriter flow which doesn't make any sense in 21st century. Text should be in a text boxes with free layout and placement like in Quark or InDesign.

Excel on the other hand is worth the price of the admission alone. That is the powerhouse of the Office suite and no other comes close to what it can do. All the commercial databases of the world are built on it and SharePoint, Project or Visio are just an icing on the cake.

I couldn't care less about lackluster presentation software
 
I love this Home Use Program. A full Office Professional with MS Access for 2000 Yen plus 2000 yen for a DVD. Great deal for my Win8 tablet. Too bad I can't order Mac version in addition. Greedy me. ;)

But still: buying a license and be sable to decide when to upgrade (if at all) I prefer to a fixed subscription.

It is too bad you cannot get both. Not sure if my firm will let me buy the 2014 though. They were a bit stingy with 2011.

Home Use is great.
 
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