Microsoft's Office for iPad Team Discusses Ballmer's Role in Launch, Mac Synergy, and More

[nagromme]

A good move--but I've heard that Balmer insisted the app be named "Microsoft Office for Windows iPad Edition for Windows 365 Starter Plus."

The new naming, without "Windows" slapped on everything, is an improvement.

 

[bryanescuela]

Don't use their software then! Problem solved! Quit complaining like a child.


Jeez, calm down! Let people complain if they want. If you get so annoyed don't comment then...

 

[unplugme71]

You must not understand the point of a forum. It's for discussion, debate, conversation, sharing opinions.

I'm participating.

 

[VulchR]

I know this is heresy among some Apple fans, but I really like MS Office and think they've done a good job. However, it will be a cold day in Hades before I pay £99 per year for an Office365 subscription. I do not mind paying for software. I do mind renting software.

 

[EGlasheen]

In my previous employment, I cut our licensing costs by 18,000 per year for a 150 employee company - most of which were factory workers. Now if an enterprise company can use more open-source/free licensed software, think of the savings. Some companies spend 10's of millions per year on licenses - quite a bit of that is probably never used due to poor auditing.

Previous? Let me guess, you saved them $18k and they saved $100k by outsourcing your job to HCL in India...

 

[brinary001]

As a computer science student who loves Apple and Microsoft equally, you can't even imagine WHAT I would do to be in that room.

 

[Mainsail]

Office 365 is a good deal for our household with 2 adults and 3 kids; 5 Macs and 2 iPads.

I assume it is a pretty good deal for college students at ~$80 for 4 years, which includes 1 computer and 1 tablet.

I bet it is a crummy deal for a person with just one or two devices and no friends or family to share the subscription and associated cost. That would be a bummer in so many ways! . I wonder how many people fit into this category.....

 

[the-msa]

i dont like to do this everytime, but:

100$ per year for the industry leading office software is too much

2600$ for low/mid end macbook pro hardware every year that others sell for 800-900$ is cool

apple yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhh

 

[efktd]

i'd like to sign into my iCloud account on all of those and see what happens when i send me an iMessage.

 

[iChrist]

The app is free.....great way to pull people in, and then BAM, hit 'em with that $10/month or $100/year to actually use the app.
Props for the douchebaggery Microsoft.

Welcome to almost every app in the App Store. Require subscription or ridiculous In App purchases.

 

[Sandstorm]

I like Office for iPad, but the subscription is much too high imo.

 

[Kariya]

Wha?

Problem is, once you stop paying there is no product. There's no ownership. You're renting and are subject MS's whims.

 

[Razeus]

Its kind of ironic in a way. People are always associating Apple with a walled garden you can't escape. Now with software subscriptions like Microsoft and Adobe its kind of doing it too.

In fact talking with a friend who's a Microsoft partner some of the packages offered make it hard to downgrade. You have to delete and make a new account. Something that a Microsoft representative admitted it was a way to deter people from going to a cheaper package.

Ummm, no.

You see, with MS documents, I use them anywhere, and everywhere. Any platform from Windows, to OSX, to Android, to iOS, to Linux. MS doesn't have a garden.

With Adobe, jpeg, tiff and psd files can be open by any imaging program.

Tell me, when I create a iWork, where can I open and edit it besides an Apple device? THAT's the definition of a walled garden. With Apple, you're trapped.

 

[Saturn1217]

Did people seriously do that ?!

The last time I paid for Office was ~ 7 years ago, and it only cost me ~$100

This I think is the real issue.

Yes Office used to cost $400+ but many (most?) people were able to get it for much cheaper (and I'm not talking about anything illegal either). I know that my school still offers the student Office suite for $30 and that license lasts forever. It is only for one computer but I only have one computer so what they offered perfectly fit my needs.

Now I'm going to have to adjust my thinking to both a higher upfront price and a yearly subscription and the ability to install on 5 computers means exactly jack to me so it just FEELS like a horrible deal. It feels like an even worse deal because I only need the subscription for office on the ipad. I would prefer to buy a standard license of office for mac or simply hold on to the version I'm currently using.

I expect (hope?) that microsoft will eventually realize this and at least offer a subscription that is only for tablet use. Probably much later after they've gotten as many as they can on the 365 train.

 

[EGlasheen]

I know this is heresy among some Apple fans, but I really like MS Office and think they've done a good job. However, it will be a cold day in Hades before I pay £99 per year for an Office365 subscription. I do not mind paying for software. I do mind renting software.

Hmm lets look at the math.

Office 2010 Professional plus = $399
Office 2013 Professional upgrade = $399

Total for 1 computer = $798 aprox ( if you upgrade, and what savvy business person wouldn't )

Office 365 for 5 computers @ $99 for 3 years = $297... Yeah, subscriptions suck.... (Do not even have to complain about upgrading either)

 

[Razeus]

Problem is, once you stop paying there is no product. There's no ownership. You're renting and are subject MS's whims.

Nope. Any file you create is yours and can be open and edited anywhere. If you can't afford MS Office for any reason, can the subscription, and use OpenOffice, iWork, Google Docs, etc. etc. The Office software itself is just a tool these days.

 

[Kariya]

Nope. Any file you create is yours and can be open and edited anywhere. If you can't afford MS Office for any reason, can the subscription, and use OpenOffice, iWork, Google Docs, etc. etc. The Office software itself is just a tool these days.

Not talking about files. With the old model, I could simply decide not buy the new office version and still keep using my old working office. With this you're SOL. And let's face there are things that office can do that the others can't. So saying use OpenOffice or other is meaningless. Especially considering people are likely using Office for esoteric purposes in the first.

 

[Porco]

I don't think anyone at all would have a problem with renting software so long as companies also sell traditional, perpetual licences for an instance of the software alongside.

Of course if people fall for the rental model, these companies will pull the stand-alone licences like Adobe have and like MS probably will soon.

To me, it's simply a greedy abuse of market dominance, and I hope it comes back to bit both companies on the backside.

Not everyone needs to constantly upgrade the likes of Office or Photoshop, and compelling anyone who wants to buy a recent version that will keep on working to sign up to a never-ending subscription is just sucky behaviour.

Say no to rental software.

 

[linuxcooldude]

Ummm, no.

You see, with MS documents, I use them anywhere, and everywhere. Any platform from Windows, to OSX, to Android, to iOS, to Linux. MS doesn't have a garden.

With Adobe, jpeg, tiff and psd files can be open by any imaging program.

Tell me, when I create a iWork, where can I open and edit it besides an Apple device? THAT's the definition of a walled garden. With Apple, you're trapped.

In some cases, yeah. Adobe creative cloud, you pay forever. Not unless you have old version, in some cases may not work with operating system upgrades.

Just because your not using Apple, don't think your not going to be limited in some way by some developers. That the direction some of the industry is headed. Microsoft is no different.

 

[Westside guy]

Not a big fan of the subscription model, but if anyone else out there remembers when Office would cost upwards of $400, the annual subscription would be a "savings" for the next four years . . .

People I knew tended to hold onto the same version of Office forever. That's why Microsoft ended up having to offer those compatibility kits.

Fortunately, back in the day, I was always eligible for academic pricing. Office ran $100+, and you'd even get three keys! But nowadays - even though I'm still eligible for academic pricing, there's little reason to buy MS Office for my own use - there are many quality alternatives. I've got Office at my job, but that wasn't my money being spent.

 

[Michael Goff]

The problem is people were not upgrading every 3 years. So Microsoft decided it was time to effectively force everyone to upgrade every year with the subscription model. For some people it will work out cheaper if they were buying all the Office upgrades in the past (not many people did, and certainly not many businesses did either). For the majority of people it will cost them more money and make Microsoft more money - which is of course why Microsoft they have adopted the subscription model.

Now do I have any a problem with a company trying to milk customers for every penny they can get? Nope. If people think they need to pay for this, and do so, then congratulations to Microsoft for continuing to milk the Office cow for loads more money.

I'm just pointing out reasons why I'm not buying into it.



I solved my own problem by not using Office at all. I hope many other people reach a similar decision.

If you don't need Office, don't get it.

A lot of people get Office because it's the best tool for the job.

 

[Razeus]

Not talking about files. With the old model, I could simply decide not buy the new office version and still keep using my old working office. With this you're SOL. And let's face there are things that office can do that the others can't. So saying use openoffice or other can be meaningless.

Either case, Office 365 is still cheaper.

If you buy the box version of Office 2013 today, it's $220 for 1 PC and ZERO mobile support.

I have a desktop, a laptop, and work PC. So out of pocket, that's $660 since I need to purchase 3 copies for each device - and STILL NO MOBILE apps.

If I buy Office 365, it's $99 a year PLUS I get to use Office on mobile (iPhone and iPad), I get tons of OneDrive, Skype minutes, AND 5 licenses to put Office on my desktop, laptop, and work PC.

In other words, I can use Office 365 for 6.5 years for the same price OVER TIME as buying Office 2013 outright today. In that time, your box version of Office will STILL be on Office 2013 and unsupported, since Microsoft would have released Office 2017 (I'm assuming 2 Office releases over the next 6.5 years) - which would be out of date, but yet my 365 subscription has all the latest features.

 

[samcraig]

Problem is, once you stop paying there is no product. There's no ownership. You're renting and are subject MS's whims.

But you can still open and edit word docs in other software at least. You aren't killing the ability to use your documents.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Charging almost $10,000 to use Office for 100 years is insane pricing. Sorry but I'm out of the Office ecosystem forever!

Whatever you do, don't calculate what the Apple ecosystem will cost you for 100 years.

Oh and why 100 years?

 

[samcraig]

Whatever you do, don't calculate what the Apple ecosystem will cost you for 100 years.

Oh and why 100 years?

He's planning to live to 113?