I don't mind having to save files - in fact I *hate* the way that most Apple apps no longer have a "Save As" option. If Microsoft do this to Mac office I won't be a happy bunny. Full screen mode wild be handy, however.
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Microsoft Reportedly 'Actively Working' on Office for iPad and Mac App Store
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I don't mind having to save files - in fact I *hate* the way that most Apple apps no longer have a "Save As" option. If Microsoft do this to Mac office I won't be a happy bunny. Full screen mode wild be handy, however.
I would be happy with Word for iPad even if the only feature is complete file & formatting compatibility with the desktop versions.
iWork (Pages) just can't handle complex formatting, tables, etc. from within Word files.
iWork (Pages) just can't handle complex formatting, tables, etc. from within Word files.
Presumably they are having to rethink their activation policy for Windows 8 App Store anyway.
Office the necessary evil
As much as we all like to bag MS, this is a suite of products that needs to be available for the Mac and indeed the iPad - how else do you get iOs and OSX into corporate world. You can all argue that this is compatible with that, or I can open this with that, but the reality is if it aint Office then it aint office.
I like Pages, Numbers etc but don't use either (Creative Suite for Page Layout and Word for basic text work, Excel for number stuff), having said that Office for Mac here in Aus is cheap - $169 (can be found for less) for full blown Word, Excel, Powerpoint that can be installed and legally used on 3 home/student machines, how is this not affordable? I remember when we had to buy the "business" version for home as that was only choice and that was multiple hundreds to buy per seat.
So come on people support the SW vendors when they support you with cheaper SW
As much as we all like to bag MS, this is a suite of products that needs to be available for the Mac and indeed the iPad - how else do you get iOs and OSX into corporate world. You can all argue that this is compatible with that, or I can open this with that, but the reality is if it aint Office then it aint office.
I like Pages, Numbers etc but don't use either (Creative Suite for Page Layout and Word for basic text work, Excel for number stuff), having said that Office for Mac here in Aus is cheap - $169 (can be found for less) for full blown Word, Excel, Powerpoint that can be installed and legally used on 3 home/student machines, how is this not affordable? I remember when we had to buy the "business" version for home as that was only choice and that was multiple hundreds to buy per seat.
So come on people support the SW vendors when they support you with cheaper SW
I don't know about Word, but I absolutely loved having Excel on my pocket PC before I got my iphone. I miss Excel (though I was upset that MS left out some very basic functionality for Exel on the pocket PC).
Don't mock it til you try it. I found it very useful (it's very flexible for making all sorts of spreadsheets and stuff to calculate stuff on the go).
Office on the iPad will sell more iPads for Apple than anything anybody has ever done. Apple should pay MS for doing it. Seriously.
That's my beef with the iPad. You can't do anything "useful" with it in a business environment. My colleagues would laugh my ass out of the office were I to send them anything from iWork. Put a non-crippled version of MS Office on the iPad and it's a game changer.
There is still nothing that can replace Microsoft Office at the moment. It's like Christmas Day if this rumor turns out to be true.
Microsoft does need an Office that supports ARM because their Windows 8 ARM tablet cannot run x86 apps. Maybe they are developing that, not necessarily for the iPad. But as a software company , how can Microsoft ignore this huge market?
Microsoft does need an Office that supports ARM because their Windows 8 ARM tablet cannot run x86 apps. Maybe they are developing that, not necessarily for the iPad. But as a software company , how can Microsoft ignore this huge market?
Office on IOS Devices Would Be a Mistake
This is a big mistake. If Microsoft wants to become a major player in the tablet and mobile markets they should release Office for Windows 8 tablets and Windows phones ONLY. My brother who owns an iPhone was lamenting the fact that he couldn't use Office on his iPhone. Office is one of the significant advantages Windows tablets and phones have over iPads and iPhones. Office exclusivity on Microsoft devices will be a driving force in businesses adopting Microsoft tablets and phones. Maybe, after Windows tablets and Windows phone gain a large enough market share, Microsoft can release Office for iOS, but it shouldn't before.
This is just like releasing the original Halo game for the Play Station at the same time as releasing it for the first generation Xbox. The fact that Halo was a Xbox exclusive game sold a lot of Xboxes for Microsoft.
This is a big mistake. If Microsoft wants to become a major player in the tablet and mobile markets they should release Office for Windows 8 tablets and Windows phones ONLY. My brother who owns an iPhone was lamenting the fact that he couldn't use Office on his iPhone. Office is one of the significant advantages Windows tablets and phones have over iPads and iPhones. Office exclusivity on Microsoft devices will be a driving force in businesses adopting Microsoft tablets and phones. Maybe, after Windows tablets and Windows phone gain a large enough market share, Microsoft can release Office for iOS, but it shouldn't before.
This is just like releasing the original Halo game for the Play Station at the same time as releasing it for the first generation Xbox. The fact that Halo was a Xbox exclusive game sold a lot of Xboxes for Microsoft.
That's why it's a rumor only. I guess M$ is developing a version of Office that runs on ARM tablets but I don't think they will release for iOS first.
So will there be a Student version, Home version, Profesional version and so on in the tradition of the MS way?
^ Hopefully, or in the alternative, they offer far more reasonable/competitive prices through the App Store.
Back on topic though, I bought the latest Office because on the Office blog they mentioned it was being updated for Lion compatibility (i.e. versions control, resume, etc). I will be mighty annoyed if they end up delaying this feature into the next version which I will have to purchase again.
URL: http://blog.officeformac.com/more-news-on-office-for-mac-2011-and-mac-os-x-10-7-lion/
Back on topic though, I bought the latest Office because on the Office blog they mentioned it was being updated for Lion compatibility (i.e. versions control, resume, etc). I will be mighty annoyed if they end up delaying this feature into the next version which I will have to purchase again.
URL: http://blog.officeformac.com/more-news-on-office-for-mac-2011-and-mac-os-x-10-7-lion/
Also, when microsoft office becomes available, many of the naysayers will finally begin to have the fact that the iPad IS a real tablet (all those people who keep saying iOS is a phone OS) and serious work CAN be done on it.
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If Excel is sold separately, my setup on the iPad will be:
Pages
Excel
Keynote
You haven't tried Keynote, have you? It's the one part of iWork that beats its MS equivalent on iOS and the Mac.
The reason Microsoft's activation policy is the way it is, is because of piracy. Both the MacApp and the App stores keep track of purchases in such a way as they do, you, and not your device is logged as the owner. This alone should insure that MS isn't getting ripped off as badly as they still are now.
Except the market it has already shown it wants the iPad and will buy with or without Office. If MS don't service the market they risk SomeOneElse doing it and becoming the Excel Killer (and in turn the MS killer).
Not saying making an Excel killer would be easy, but leave a big enough hole in the market and someone sure will.
The revenue Microsoft could earn from an iOS version of office is pretty big, so undoubtedly they will entertain the idea. I doubt they will forgo it just to try and win he tablet war. They will do what is best for their economic interest, and it appears that is to develop of the tablet with 80% market share.
Visual Studio has been able to cross-compile ARM code for at least most of the last decade. Win8 ARM is not a problem.
Office for IOS/Android, however, is more work. The Win APIs have to be emulated on IOS/Android. (Since Office runs on OSX, and IOS is OSX-lite, for IOS most likely this has mostly been done already.)
Microsoft makes money selling software. Microsoft makes more money if they can sell on more platforms.
Yeah, Microsoft's absence in the tablet market is so total it's incredible. No OS software and no application software... and they are a software company!!
But it hasn't happened yet... it's still at the rumor stage. First they need to make an official announcement, then hint at a release date, then miss the release date and ... well you get the picture.
I'd love to see Office for the iDevices. However, iWorks, as it is right now, is more of a beta than the real deal. Apple wisely got "something; anything" out on the iPad, and that's a good thing. But it isn't even near MS Office's quality and depth. If MS doesn't start hustling then Apple has a window to bring iWorks along to where more and more users won't care if MS Office gets on board or not.
This is good news. I am already enjoying office 2011, but its nice to see Microsoft putting up some competition for Apple on both app stores.
Your post is the most extreme example of Activation problems I've ever heard...and I use/support Office 2007 & 2010 on hundreds of users' machines globally for our Proof Of Concepts and demonstrations. I hear your anger but I think you have really, REALLY exaggerated on your entire post.
1)Microsoft does not hide behind a computer...you can speak to a human anytime during Activation. Or, don't call the Activation #...call the generic MS Customer Service and you'll be taken care of immediately by a human.
2)Although I agree that MS Activation really stinks, MS is a software company...and their 2 biggest software titles (Windows and Office) need to combat piracy. If everyone pirates these 2 titles, MS loses (and does lose) millions of dollars every year. I have a feeling Activation as we know it will be changed in the next year or 2...it's annoying in the first place and if/when it pops up again due to NUMEROUS hardware changes, it's annoying again.
3)As I pointed out in #2, you need NUMEROUS INTERNAL hardware changes (although each can be minor such as RAM, cpu, drive changes, video card changes, etc. external stuff like USB drives, webcams, printers, mice, monitors, etc. will never trigger) to trigger re-Activation. However, these days the real trigger is simply if you replace your NIC. That's Microsoft's real definition of "a computer" these days. You can replace a lot of stuff often and MS doesn't care...but once you replace the NIC, you will always need to re-activate. If you are using virtual machines and passing them around among friends/co-workers, then yes, you are going to see Activation 100% of the time since the VM will see a new NIC whenever it is powered on.
4)For 90% of the consumer population who never change (or extremely rarely) the internal hardware on their pc, Activation is a 1-time affair...during the installation process. For the remaining 10% that love to build and continually upgrade hardware (you are a techie), well, you very likely knew in advance that MS (as well as other companies) are going to think you are trying to run the application on a different machine...and thus trigger an Activation.
5)As you mentioned, Activation can be done numerous times (sometimes up to 10 for consumers) before the automated service turns you over to a human. Therefore, if you are activating a single install of Office 5-10 times, you are in the 0.00001% of Office users.
This is my feeling as well. I like numbers far better than excel. It's not that Excel has less power, it is just geared towards a different application than Numbers. For me, Numbers does automatically everything I had to manually format in Excel. I rarely touch the Excel icon in my dock now.
"Why" is more like it. Support your small and independent developers. There are quite a few excellent office apps out there.
Why does MS Office necessarily need to have an "advantage?" Isn't more 3rd party support for iPad (and iOS overall) good? I think it is.
Then again, this is a news report on Microsoft on an Apple site... I shouldn't be surprised for the start of negative feedback.
Aren't you guys tired of this PC vs. Mac stuff? I am. Let's move on.
w00master
Dude, calm down, the guy was legitimately just asking.