NO chance I am paying a subscription. Years ago maybe, but MS is about 2 years too late. Best bet is to give it away and build back your customer base.
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Microsoft Office for iPad to Launch on March 27
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Four years, with absolutely nothing released? Sorry, that's ridiculous.
They could have come out with a paired-down version (like what we got today with OneNote, and what Apple is doing with Pages) and added features over time. In fact, I will be very surprised if the version we get won't be paired-down as well. It's going to feel like a 1.0 version app.
At this point, Microsoft needs Apple and not the other way around. Microsoft should wise up and realize that trying to push a subscription model on consumers will not work if real value isn't there. I can see businesses falling into that trap, but the average consumer got by on their tablet for years without office. There is nothing compelling now to cough up $100 a year.
You'd think the new CEO would come in with fresh ideas but he still caught up trying to impress the board with $$$ pitches that are dead on arrival. Microsoft is a software company at heart. Get your software out there across all platforms and saturate the market. Get consumers hooked. Once that happens then you can try to implement the "get more money" schemes.
They certainly will, however, Enterprises are not very eager to use Office 365, since they already have their own private or hybrid clouds with hosted Exchange or something else.
Also, I am very sceptic about Office on an iPad in general, as no one in their right minds would edit something just with the iOS keyboard. The Surface Pro, however, comes with a touch keyboard, which is a lot more useful for such tasks.
Therefore I don't think that Office for iPad will ever become a viable solution other than a niche for Microsoft. Their primary focus should still be the Surface Pro.
Dig deeper under the Surface
Pure politics. Delay iPad Office in hopes of have on MSSurface tabs first & create a demand for their tablets vs. Apple tablets.
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Do not need MS Office in the mobile space anymore. MS Office is last century legacy desktop handcuffed to your desk forced to use Internet Explorer software mentality.
Been there. Done that. Moved on the the future & the PostPC Era.
Pure politics. Delay iPad Office in hopes of have on MSSurface tabs first & create a demand for their tablets vs. Apple tablets.
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Do not need MS Office in the mobile space anymore. MS Office is last century legacy desktop handcuffed to your desk forced to use Internet Explorer software mentality.
Been there. Done that. Moved on the the future & the PostPC Era.
The Office 365 model is a no-brainer for those of us with multiple devices and platforms. Rather than buying Office for PC (or Boot Camp) and Office for Mac and Office for iOS ... I can more or less freely use it across the devices I have regardless of platform.
At $100/year for 5 PCs/Macs (unclear if the iPad version will count as a PC/Mac or smartphone) it's a steal! Buying Office for both platforms every couple of years was more expensive.
The extra OneDrive storage space and Skype minutes are just gravy.
Of course with Google Drive massively lowering the cost of their storage today (100 GB for $2/mo, 1TB for $10/mo) the value of 20 GB went way down.
B
At $100/year for 5 PCs/Macs (unclear if the iPad version will count as a PC/Mac or smartphone) it's a steal! Buying Office for both platforms every couple of years was more expensive.
The extra OneDrive storage space and Skype minutes are just gravy.
Of course with Google Drive massively lowering the cost of their storage today (100 GB for $2/mo, 1TB for $10/mo) the value of 20 GB went way down.
B
One day when my kids were little, I sat with them and watched "Barney and Friends." After a few minutes I said, "This is the stupidest thing I have ever seen, I can't stand this." To which my wife replied, "That's because it wasn't made for you." And sure enough, my kids loved it.
For those of you who who are able to do your work in iWork (please stop putting an s at the end.) congratulations to you. You know what? Office was not written for you.
But please stop with the stupid, "who wants this" and "I don't need this" comments because, yeah we get it. Not everyone needs Word. But there are plenty of us out here that do need it and need serious tools that are compatible with everyone else that we have to work with. And those of us who do need Office don't really care that you don't, or that your hatred of a tech company leads you to go out of your way to avoid their software.
/irritated rant
For those of you who who are able to do your work in iWork (please stop putting an s at the end.) congratulations to you. You know what? Office was not written for you.
But please stop with the stupid, "who wants this" and "I don't need this" comments because, yeah we get it. Not everyone needs Word. But there are plenty of us out here that do need it and need serious tools that are compatible with everyone else that we have to work with. And those of us who do need Office don't really care that you don't, or that your hatred of a tech company leads you to go out of your way to avoid their software.
/irritated rant
After my Pages and Numbers documents completely disappeared from my iCloud account without a trace and Apple support was no help in restoring them, I'm interested in this. Office has always been the better office suite anyways IMO.
Microsoft doesn't want to pay Apple's 30%. So the external subscription is how they get around that.
Yes, this is disappointing. I can download office from my university server for my Mac, but AFAIK I can't use 365 related features. I'll have to ask our tech guys here what MS is going to do for enterprise customers like universities.
Nope, the broken screen was just the final nail. I had already been trying hard to justify the expensive hardware before it broke...
For the record, the iPad is the only Apple product I have ever been seriously disappointed in. iOS is optimized for the iPhone and OS X for the Mac...the iPad is somewhere in between and not very good at either.
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Not for a subscription fee, I won't.
My job offers the Home User full version of Office for around $10-20 per version. I can use these as long as I'm an employee. It's been nice not to pay much for Office for Mac the last five years especially since I only use Word at home.
And whenever that changes, I'll move over to iWorks officially.
Not for a subscription fee, I won't.
My job offers the Home User full version of Office for around $10-20 per version. I can use these as long as I'm an employee. It's been nice not to pay much for Office for Mac the last five years especially since I only use Word at home.
And whenever that changes, I'll move over to iWorks officially.
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.
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.
That argument sounds logical, and I hear it all the time from Microsoft fans, but if someone creates a store - digital or bricks n mortar - they are entitled to a cut of sales because they are bringing in business for the product owner. Apple's iOS Store is literally a channel which puts Office for iPad in the laps of millions of people. The success of the iPad and the App Store will bring in potentially millions of dollars for Microsoft. Saying that Apple 'don't deserve' a cut is like saying that Walmart doesn't deserve a cut for the stuff that it sells, because it doesn't make any of it. Or that Amazon doesn't deserve a cut when they sell a book, because they didn't write any of it. Or that Microsoft doesn't deserve a cut when they sell a Surface app, because they didn't code it. Yep, Microsoft also takes a 30% cut of those apps you download on your Surface - do they deserve any of that?
