Don't have kids!!!! $10 000 for 100 years is a bargain.
By chance do you buy more than 2 coffes a month ??
Also taking into account inflation, that $10k over 100years is an Outstanding deal!!!! I mean a deal of the century!
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Microsoft's Office for iPad Team Discusses Ballmer's Role in Launch, Mac Synergy, and More
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Don't have kids!!!! $10 000 for 100 years is a bargain.
By chance do you buy more than 2 coffes a month ??
Also taking into account inflation, that $10k over 100years is an Outstanding deal!!!! I mean a deal of the century!
I work in a corporate environment. Excel is likely the biggest draw. Then power point, word, and access. The compatibility between the different software and the amount of investment in Office templates forms and macros would make changing very painful. People are familiar with it. If it's not broken why fix it probably applies.
Office 365 is a good value for our household because we have multiple devices and users. It might not be a good value for others. If MS does not sell enough subscriptions because free offerings are taking too much of their market, they will be forced to lower the subscription price or change pricing models.
For me, the current offering was good enough. Others might want to wait to see if MS will need to sweeten the pot with more installs, lower subscription prices, more online storage, and/or something else.
If you think the subscription is too expensive, let market forces take their natural course and prove you right. The whole thing seems self-correcting, but nobody should expect MS to give Office away for free.
For me, the current offering was good enough. Others might want to wait to see if MS will need to sweeten the pot with more installs, lower subscription prices, more online storage, and/or something else.
If you think the subscription is too expensive, let market forces take their natural course and prove you right. The whole thing seems self-correcting, but nobody should expect MS to give Office away for free.
Don't have kids!!!! $10 000 for 100 years is a bargain.
By chance do you buy more than 2 coffes a month ??
that coffee argument is getting so old. completely denying context in purchasing value is a weak argument to begin with. perhaps the act of entering a physical establishment twice a month to interact with other people and enjoy a unique taste, unavailable elsewhere, is seen as a good way to spend $10. the differentiating factor is that Starbucks does not require you to return next month and every month thereafter to spend $10. another difference is that coffee is a physical entity and not something that can be replicated infinitely from the initial materials and investment. if you could brew a single pot of coffee and serve the entire world's demands with just that one pot, occasionally checking on the creamer and stirring straws to make sure people are still satisfied, then perhaps we could compare software expenditures to coffee. but i don't think we're quite there yet.
I'm guessing you're also discounting security updates, UI improvements, better document support, 64-bit support, new graphic options, support for online pictures from a few sources, the newer templates and ability to get others online, the collaboration features, and so forth?
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I agree, coffee is a bad example. It takes a lot less effort to make a pot of coffee than it does to make a good piece of software.
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Nobody will be using Office for 100 years.
Of course not. That would be way too expensive.
Nobody will be using iWork for 100 years either.
Nobody will be using Notepad for 100 years.
A lot of people won't be breathing for 100 years.
Limited by OneDrive
I have Office 365 Business Premium, and for me the single biggest restriction with the whole MS system is OneDrive. There are three different types of OneDrive, and they all work differently. (if you include Sharepoint).
But I use Dropbox instead because it works on Mac, while OneDrive for Business doesn't. It also works properly for my my mission critical app on iPad (PDF Expert), where the OneDrives don't. They keep on disconnecting and requiring a password.
Office for iPad only works with the OneDrives, not with Dropbox, so it's meh to Office for iPad. I can live without it.
MS you were forced to rebrand SkyDrive and you could have made it all less confusing. But you flunked it and made it more confusing by calling them OneDrive, when (a) there is more than one of them, and (b) I can't use just one of them for everything.
I have Office 365 Business Premium, and for me the single biggest restriction with the whole MS system is OneDrive. There are three different types of OneDrive, and they all work differently. (if you include Sharepoint).
But I use Dropbox instead because it works on Mac, while OneDrive for Business doesn't. It also works properly for my my mission critical app on iPad (PDF Expert), where the OneDrives don't. They keep on disconnecting and requiring a password.
Office for iPad only works with the OneDrives, not with Dropbox, so it's meh to Office for iPad. I can live without it.
MS you were forced to rebrand SkyDrive and you could have made it all less confusing. But you flunked it and made it more confusing by calling them OneDrive, when (a) there is more than one of them, and (b) I can't use just one of them for everything.
Whilst you might think it's Microsoft douchbaggery, they certainly weren't the first to go this way and I can guarantee they won't be the last. Expect many companies to begin moving to a subscription model. Software companies, particularly of expensive business orientated software are starting to see it may be better for them to charge less over a longer period of time, for them it means they don't have the cycle of long development cycle, release, large rush of sales for income then back to long development cycle again with reducing income as sales slow again. Instead they now have a steady income over the whole development cycle.
There are very few people that actually use Office 365 will tell you it's not good value but it's something you actually need to use to get value from it. If you want to do no more than throw together the odd document every now and again then obviously you are going to be better off with Pages, Keynote, etc or some other free offering.
yes, that was indeed part of my original question, which led to my elaboration of it, which led me to more of a general string of statements, or thesis, as opposed to a singular question. to bring it all back home, the original topic is centered on the iPad version, which as you have kindly mentioned, is subscription only. i never said that i feel i am entitled to a 10 year lifespan on software that can run on multiple generations of hardware. but if i so chose, i could bust out a relic and likely create 95% of the content as can be output from current editions of Office, with what i can only imagine is a negligible difference in speed, and all for $0 a month. although it is likely that in 10 years, my current iPad will be lying in a junkyard somewhere, it is 100% guaranteed that i couldn't use Word for iPad to type something up without spending whatever the current rental fee is.
you can say, "if you don't like it, don't use it" but if you don't think this is going to be an increasingly popular trend in software policy, you're kidding yourself. i argue against its practice because i know i am not the only one who gets no value from it, and i truly wish more people would take a step back and realize that they are falling into marketing traps by large corporations who are doing a wonderful job of optimizing their accounting and pleasing their shareholders. until then, the people who are subscribing to SAAS simply because they don't know any better are only making things worse for the future of personal computing. is SAAS bad for everyone? not at all. many corporations DO benefit from this business model. people who use ALL the software in a suite on a regular basis also benefit. but individual users such as myself will only lose out in the end, when all professional software becomes rental only.
Of course, it's more than fair that a company that spends time, money and resources to develop a product, wants to get compensated for that, and so they should. The problem for MS is that there are cheaper or free alternatives available that although not as powerful as 'MS Office', are good enough for many people.
MS does not really have the advantage of making up for free software, on hardware sales, at least to the extent that Apple does, anyway. And now that Apple has 'spoiled' us with certain free software, anything else sounds expensive by comparison, and tends to bring out the whiners.
I'd say, use what you need, and enjoy it, whatever that is. No one forces you to buy or use subscriptions, unless you want to. "Leave the bitchin' in the kitchen".
Your loss. To be able to run the latest and greatest Office on near enough any device, plus extra OneDrive storage and an exchange server for >£40 a year is a steal. Much better than spending £300 per copy every few years they release one.
You do realize you can still buy separate copies if you like? Subscription free as always. It just doesn't include the iPad version.
Yeah I really need all that additional OneDrive storage for my Office documents storage needs.
People keep trumpeting that perk as a value-add, but hardly anyone on the Mac side is going to take advantage of it.Microsoft could give 10 terabytes of data away for the subscription and it wouldn't add a dime of real value for the majority of Apple users.
I don't disagree with you. Point I am making, is that prices go up, and something so trivial as a cup of coffee can be had around $5. I do no think twice having a cuppa, its cheap! For someone that needs office, $10/month is cheap.
I get the academic version, which is about one-third of the price you state. Also, I have computers at my workplace that run Windows 95 perfectly well, so my costs are distributed of very many years.
So, for me a subscription is nonsense, and the public sector in the UK is considering going over to OpenOffice because of the price of MS Office. I much prefer MS Office, but in this age of austerity and budget cuts....You can't liken .jpg files to .doc files.
Word Documents are so easy to open because of the range of apps which open them, whichever platform you're on. People built apps that were compatible with Office because of the dominance of Office.
Try opening a .psd document without Photoshop.
The problem with this assertion is that you are devaluing the time, energy and materials to produce the software to begin with. Add in updates and fixes over time.
But I don't blame you for the faulty logic. Afterall, we're now in a world where so many apps are .99 and the user community expects that after paying that measly sum for some great software, they expect a lifetime of updates and extra features at no extra cost. And heaven help the developer that puts his app EOL for updates and creates a 2nd version of the app and charges for it.
No - everyone after that initial purchase should be working for free... right?
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You can in GIMP. I am not sure of 100% compatibility - but it definitely opens up PSDs in layers
FTR, Pixelmator does an excellent job with PSDs. Im not sure where the compatibility busts, but Ive gotten complex PSDs from our UI guy, and was easily able to deal with the layers, groups, etc.
One of the better $15 I ever spent
FTR, Pixelmator does an excellent job with PSDs. Im not sure where the compatibility busts, but Ive gotten complex PSDs from our UI guy, and was easily able to deal with the layers, groups, etc.
One of the better $15 I ever spent
Thanks - I forgot to mention that as well.
Yeah I really need all that additional OneDrive storage for my Office documents storage needs.
Sure. You don't need the subscription. You don't need the extra features. That is fine. No need to abandon Office. You can still buy boxed copies just as normal and I'm assuming your previous versions haven't stopped working either.
(BTW... I'm on the Mac side and I sure as hell take advantage of Office 365. No other office suite comes close to MS Office.)
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I believe my logic is quite sound actually. Please don't assume that arguing against software subscriptions equates people with demanding free updates and added features. This logic is considerably more off than what you assume I am saying.
The analogy I used works just fine if you don't immediately dismiss my position and assume I feel that devs are just sitting back, raking in the millions. I was simply trying to add context to another persons comment regarding the comparison between software and hard goods. Nowhere did I imply a dev doesn't work hard to earn their money. But when you have an end result that can be infinitely duplicated, you can no longer directly compare its costs to a finite tangible good. There are a number of other factors that contribute to the cost of a piece of software, but none of this has anything to do with my position on the topic.
Again, I cannot stress this enough, please stop falsely assuming that those that do not wish to pay never ending monthly fees to use software are undervaluing the work that goes into the creation of it. Please stop assuming that those that wish to OWN their software are only willing to pay pennies on the dollar for it. These are accusations that unfairly degrade my position, when all I wish to do is advocated for a fair marketplace for all of us. It seems as though people are forgetting that for 30 years, software development has turned garage based companies into multinational billion dollar corporations, all without requiring monthly fees. Why is it that now we must assume that subscription services are the only way they can continue to stay economically viable?