I agree, I hate how all these companies make you make an email account to use their services.
And yes, I know that's not really solvable, but it's still annoying.
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Microsoft Office on iPad Spotted, Coming Soon to App Store
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I agree, I hate how all these companies make you make an email account to use their services.
And yes, I know that's not really solvable, but it's still annoying.
Rafterman
macrumors 604
MS's Bread & Butter
...is software. They should stop trying to be an iGadget supplier (FAiL!!) and concentrate solely on software. And by doing so, really polish it up and restore their reputation which has really sagged over the last decade. There is still hope for MS!!!
EXCEL is absolutely untouchable as a spreadsheet app and I look forward to buying it from the App Store. I hope the individual Apps which comprise "Office" will all be for sale individually. Only want EXCEL as Pages and Keynote suffice for my needs and make Word and PowerPoint....moot.
...is software. They should stop trying to be an iGadget supplier (FAiL!!) and concentrate solely on software. And by doing so, really polish it up and restore their reputation which has really sagged over the last decade. There is still hope for MS!!!
EXCEL is absolutely untouchable as a spreadsheet app and I look forward to buying it from the App Store. I hope the individual Apps which comprise "Office" will all be for sale individually. Only want EXCEL as Pages and Keynote suffice for my needs and make Word and PowerPoint....moot.
As well as the professionals who don't have an office job.
If this works well it will obviously be a popular application but as with desktops that doesn't mean pages is useless.
I use pages to design contracts, model release forms etc exported as pdf and inDesign for books or more complex documents. I have no need for the office suite and am in no way a "kid".
Pages excels in document layout and works as a mini inDesign. If you don't need the power of indesign to create a layout then doing so in pages is actually faster and more efficient. The interface is also cleaner and more integrated with the OS than anything else available.
Mad-B-One
macrumors 6502a
Rather the other way around: Apple needed the money to survive. 5 years later they switched for the simple reason that their own achitecture was not going to be able to comptete anymore with the PC architecture. At that point, the x86 structure had so many developers working that the switch was necessary (and came 2005-06 if I am correct). MS took his money back in 2000. So no direct link there - but without the MS money, Apple would have never made it to this switch - which was publically announced in 2005(?).
Gasu E.
macrumors 603
I'd be shocked if it were that cheap. I expect more like $29.99 per app, given this isn't Windows.
Unless MS is projecting that some huge percentage (40-50%) of iPad owners would buy at $9.99... in which case you may be right.
kazmac
macrumors G4
this is good news
I've gone back and forth with MS, but since I can't seem to wrangle Pages the same way I do Word, having Word for the iPad is something I am looking forward to.
I would hope you can edit docs created on both Windows and Mac platforms (not just locally and online). If this is the case, great. Then all I would eventually ask for is Final Draft, Pixelmator for iPad (both with mac to iPad editing/updating/transfer) and being able to print to my existing printer.
Once these apps are compatible with Mac/PC (in the case of Office) and the iPad, my computer days are numbered.
I've gone back and forth with MS, but since I can't seem to wrangle Pages the same way I do Word, having Word for the iPad is something I am looking forward to.
I would hope you can edit docs created on both Windows and Mac platforms (not just locally and online). If this is the case, great. Then all I would eventually ask for is Final Draft, Pixelmator for iPad (both with mac to iPad editing/updating/transfer) and being able to print to my existing printer.
Once these apps are compatible with Mac/PC (in the case of Office) and the iPad, my computer days are numbered.
Few points, forgive the potentialy long post.
1) This makes total sense and is a defensive move from Microsoft. They simply can't risk people working out they don't need Office, especially in the enterprise. For that reason I'd expect the price to be reasonably competitive with competing products, maybe with a slight premium attached. Can the availability of Office on iOS damage Windows 8? Yes, of course it can. That said I really doubt it'd be the tipping point between buying an iPad or a W8 tablet, especially as it'd be available on both (and, if reports are accurate, might even be free on W8).
2) While the apps may not be full featured that doesn't really matter. For massively complicated spreadsheets, documents etc users will still prefer desktops or laptops with keyboard, mouse and big screen. This is designed to ensure all those who need Office for compatibility and relatively basic changes (like, say, most middle and upper managers...) have an official option. Let's face it how many of the millions of Office users ever do more than scratch the surface anyway? In this case opening documents and preserving formating would be far more important than ensuring every last feature was rammed in.
3) This is nothing more than a theory but I really don't think Microsoft are targetting Apple in the mobile space. They've seen in the laptop and desktop market that Apple will (at least for now) carve out their own space and there's not a lot anyone can do about that. MS are, I suspect, far more concerned with Android coming in and repeating its trick of taking a large chunk of market share essentialy by default because there's no real competitor. At the moment that's not happening largely because of price pressure from Apple making it very difficult to bring in a competing tablet with equivalent specs and build quality at a significantly cheaper price but who knows how long that'll last. Bringing Office to the iPad can be seen as a very smart move to keep Android away from MS's core markets in the tablet space.
1) This makes total sense and is a defensive move from Microsoft. They simply can't risk people working out they don't need Office, especially in the enterprise. For that reason I'd expect the price to be reasonably competitive with competing products, maybe with a slight premium attached. Can the availability of Office on iOS damage Windows 8? Yes, of course it can. That said I really doubt it'd be the tipping point between buying an iPad or a W8 tablet, especially as it'd be available on both (and, if reports are accurate, might even be free on W8).
2) While the apps may not be full featured that doesn't really matter. For massively complicated spreadsheets, documents etc users will still prefer desktops or laptops with keyboard, mouse and big screen. This is designed to ensure all those who need Office for compatibility and relatively basic changes (like, say, most middle and upper managers...) have an official option. Let's face it how many of the millions of Office users ever do more than scratch the surface anyway? In this case opening documents and preserving formating would be far more important than ensuring every last feature was rammed in.
3) This is nothing more than a theory but I really don't think Microsoft are targetting Apple in the mobile space. They've seen in the laptop and desktop market that Apple will (at least for now) carve out their own space and there's not a lot anyone can do about that. MS are, I suspect, far more concerned with Android coming in and repeating its trick of taking a large chunk of market share essentialy by default because there's no real competitor. At the moment that's not happening largely because of price pressure from Apple making it very difficult to bring in a competing tablet with equivalent specs and build quality at a significantly cheaper price but who knows how long that'll last. Bringing Office to the iPad can be seen as a very smart move to keep Android away from MS's core markets in the tablet space.
D.T.
macrumors G4
Since were speculating about price 🙂
Im going with $19.95 each, with the suite of the three core apps (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) for $49.95 😀
I think theres a real sweet spot (no pun intended ... OK, maybe a little) of less than $50 for major productivity apps.
Powerpoint would be excellent, it seems like thats what Im always working on when traveling, and theres not a simple, seamless runtime option for porting desktop PPT/PPTX to iOS devices (that preserves all the features).
The main issue with not using MS Office is the interoperability across alternate office suites, iWorks, all the Open Office forks, its just inconsistent and sketchy, which this will hopefully help to resolve.
acidfast7
macrumors 65816
It's a niche product at best.
Anyone who works with Office extensively won't use it because the input interface on the iPad is useless.
Anyone, who presents anything from an Office document (with half a brain) always converts to PDF before presentation because it's standardized across platforms and hardware (you never know what version of PPT/XLS/DOC will be on the machine and what fonts will/won't be installed (especially the language and maths/symbols fonts.)
When we print anything larger than 1m x 1m it always goes to PDF first, that way it will end up the same on all printers and won't be at the mercy of the computer sending to the printer.
I guess that I don't see the use of it and people I talked to today don't either.
Custom software makes the iPad useful, porting office to it doesn't bring anything in our eyes. FYI, we have more than enough capital to invest in iPads for every student, but we fail to see the value in it.
maybe for ENG101 but not for any data processing/presentation
MacNewsFix
macrumors 6502a
Uh oh.
Does this mean content creation on an iPad is possible and/or alluring? And the traditional PC's de facto office suite no less.
What's next?
Does this mean content creation on an iPad is possible and/or alluring? And the traditional PC's de facto office suite no less.
What's next?
I bet Microsoft demos this on stage at the iPad 3 launch event on March 7th and it comes out on the actual day of launch for the iPad 3, Retina ready.
MacAddict1978
macrumors 68000
I'm happy to see this coming. I do love iWork, but at the same time, for a lot of people we need Office.
What I am really curious about is the price. Not just the price, but the price vs. features from the desktop version.
I don't find it interesting there won't be an Android version at all.
1. Piracy is very easy on the Android platform. Google lacks the control of the iTunes Store in registering apps to a user. There are multiple Android markets out there.
2. Microsoft would rather pour gasoline on a Microsoft Store and set in on fire than help Google in any way. Microsoft and Apple may have their rivalry, but they're not really threatened by one another and have proven to co-exist well, especially with cross platform software sales on the Mac being a big source of revenue for Microsoft. Far different from Google, who Microsoft competes with in every space of business they do. And they're losing in most of those areas to Google.
What I am really curious about is the price. Not just the price, but the price vs. features from the desktop version.
I don't find it interesting there won't be an Android version at all.
1. Piracy is very easy on the Android platform. Google lacks the control of the iTunes Store in registering apps to a user. There are multiple Android markets out there.
2. Microsoft would rather pour gasoline on a Microsoft Store and set in on fire than help Google in any way. Microsoft and Apple may have their rivalry, but they're not really threatened by one another and have proven to co-exist well, especially with cross platform software sales on the Mac being a big source of revenue for Microsoft. Far different from Google, who Microsoft competes with in every space of business they do. And they're losing in most of those areas to Google.
rti92391
macrumors regular
Pages is absolute garbage for taking notes....All of the iWork suite is terrible!
Maybe this will be announced with the iPad 3 in a couple weeks...
That hits the core of Microsoft's failure. It isn't Windows alone they are at risk of losing... they have started to lose Office users. People have long been under the illusion that "to get work done" you needed Office but with the advent of iPhones, iPads, Android devices and more everyone from the CEO on down at corporations are beginning to see that you most certain can survive WITHOUT Office and so begins the loss of Office and with it the potential failure of the entirety of Microsoft. They have stayed still far to long and this is a move to blunt it.
Read this editorial on this idea which is A) brilliant and B) better than I could ever express it...
http://minimalmac.com/post/17758177061/microsofts-biggest-miss
Here is a quote from it:
"You see, she said, missing all of the opportunities was just the start of a much deeper problem. Microsoft for many years had convinced the world that, in order to get real work done, you needed Office.
In fact, my many years of Mac Consulting was proof of this. To my clients, Microsoft Office was a must have no matter how much I tried to convince them otherwise. They had to have it.
Then, she explained, the iPhone came. There was no Office. People got things done. Then the iPad came. There was no Office. People got things done. Android came. People got things done. All of those things that they, just a couple of years ago, were convinced they needed Office to do. They got them done without it. And thus, the truth was revealed.
Microsofts biggest miss is not the lack of a smartphone, or tablet, or Office apps for iOS and Android.
Like the curtain finally falling from the Wizard of Oz to find just a small, frail, man pretending to be far more powerful and relevant than he really was. Microsofts biggest miss was allowing the world to finally see the truth behind the big lie they were not needed to get real work done. Or anything done, really.
And that will be what ultimately kills them."
MacinDoc
macrumors 68020
MS Office for iPad and the iPad 3 is coming out soon... This sounds like it's all coming together too well haha
MacAddict1978
macrumors 68000
I'm with you on this one. I doubt it would be $9.99. Again, we have to see how feature rich the apps turn out to be. They very well may be stripped of certain modes/views, etc. Word could lack the page layout functions of the desktop... who knows yet. But what we do know is Microsoft loves their money, and Office is their bread and butter.
I also think this helps them in some ways with Windows Phone, which comes with Office apps built in. While some companies/IT depts. are letting Android phones on their networks, Android is still not seen as a secure platform in a lot of corporate environments. IOS is winning there. Having Office on IOS devices and Windows Phone devices might be enough to make some companies nix Android at some point. When your boss wants a spreadsheet, they want that spreadsheet. I can see a halo effect possibly happening here.
Though, most anyone I know who has been allowed an Android phone for work has switched pretty fast if only for battery life issues that plague that OS.
NAG
macrumors 68030
Yeah, the infusion was necessary at the very least to give Apple momentum (and Microsoft needed to do it for various reasons). Even if Apple didn't die without it they'd probably be a few years behind where they currently are. Just making sure there wasn't any wackiness going on (some people have the weirdest conspiracy theories).
---------
As far as life without office, it is getting so bad for MS that some people are starting to see that you don't even need a full word processor. Just a text editor can do almost everything you need. (Admittedly this isn't mainstream but it is getting much more press than it used to.)
Wicked1
macrumors 68040
Hopefully it also stimulates Mac usage in the corp world, because Windows PC's really do S--K
moetownslick
macrumors regular
Support for tracked changes would be huge for me. I work with contracts daily, and to be able to review and respond to redlines would be the one feature that would make this a day-one purchase for me.
This will be interesting because their Mac/PC versions are fairly expensive. I doubt they can charge $150 for the iPad version.
From the picture, it looks like there won't be separate apps for separate office portions, so you probably have to but the whole package. $50 sounds right.
Will there be free updates? This is where Microsoft usually makes all the money, by making you want to upgrade.
Can they charge you for updates through the App Store?