Hey all,
I've been pondering this for quite a while and I thought now would be an excellent time to throw it out. After working in a fairly evenly split PC-Mac workflow, I really think that Apple should make a foray into a cross-platform Office suite. If they were to offer Pages & Keynote in a Windows version, it would provide businesses and schools with an excellent alternative to the staples of MS Office. (Although, I don't know how Microsoft's MBU would feel about this.)
As much as people thump Windows' ubiquity in the office, it quickly strikes me that Mac has far superior networking and conferencing tools available on it. Consider, if you will, a bundle that contained Pages, Keynote, (Unreleased Spreadsheet App), iCal, iChat, Address Book and Mail. Now I work in television, which requires a lot of travel. The potential of iChat's ability to interface with Keynote and provide an instant video-conferencing solution would be reason enough for me to pitch the switch. Also, speaking of television, there is a little-known trick that allows you to export your Final Cut Pro preview window to iChat, so that your producer can view real-time edits remotely.
You may be asking why I would add iCal to this package? Well, one of the most frustrating tasks that I was ever delegated was to find an easy to use cross-platform calendar program similar to Calendar Creator (which is about 10,000 years old.) I suggested that iCal was the easiest calendar program I knew of, but unfortunately it wasn't cross platform, so no dice. In the end, the answer was that there aren't any cross-platform calendar programs even remotely similar to Calendar Creator, so guess what they're still using? Ug...
This brings up Mail and Address Book. In terms of an office setting, Apple's integration of these programs makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, without them, you're left depending on MS Outlook, the latest incarnation of which is quite possibly one of the most frustrating programs in the history of the universe. Not only that, but providing an office solution without a viable e-mail client (when MS already does so) wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for the end user.
Now I know what you're saying - giving away bits of iLife and iWork reduces people's incentive to switch, which should be every Mac fanboy's goal. After all, why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free (or $149, at the very least.) Apple, however, doesn't seem to feel the same way, at least not entirely. They've already ported Safari to Windows in a very cunning attempt at increasing the Mac's foothold in the Windows Universe. Making a foray into office productivity would balance the bar even further in Apple's favour. Granted, in my ideal universe we'd have an all-Mac workflow and I wouldn't need to be having this argument. Unfortunately, the cost of our beloved Mac hardware makes stingy IT purchasers balk at that prospect. I mean think about it - are you really going to pop $999 so that your front desk receptionist can have a striking new iMac, when you could outfit her with an $499 Dell instead? I think not.
But what about the switchers? Those loyal converts that Apple has lovingly wooed to it's bosom with it's amazing hardware and suite of exclusive applications? The beauty is that they would still be getting the majority of these Apps for free, while Windows clients would be paying a premium. Moreover, if such a move provided to be financially successful, Apple could toy with the idea of bundling iWork with OS X and making up the lost revenue though the Windows sales. Plus, having more copies of iWork on Macs would only further increase the likelihood of it popping up elsewhere.
All in all, I think it would be a sound prospect, both financially and strategically. It would be like delivering an entire cooler of Coke and push-up pops to someone in hell, and that's a pretty fun analogy.
I've been pondering this for quite a while and I thought now would be an excellent time to throw it out. After working in a fairly evenly split PC-Mac workflow, I really think that Apple should make a foray into a cross-platform Office suite. If they were to offer Pages & Keynote in a Windows version, it would provide businesses and schools with an excellent alternative to the staples of MS Office. (Although, I don't know how Microsoft's MBU would feel about this.)
As much as people thump Windows' ubiquity in the office, it quickly strikes me that Mac has far superior networking and conferencing tools available on it. Consider, if you will, a bundle that contained Pages, Keynote, (Unreleased Spreadsheet App), iCal, iChat, Address Book and Mail. Now I work in television, which requires a lot of travel. The potential of iChat's ability to interface with Keynote and provide an instant video-conferencing solution would be reason enough for me to pitch the switch. Also, speaking of television, there is a little-known trick that allows you to export your Final Cut Pro preview window to iChat, so that your producer can view real-time edits remotely.
You may be asking why I would add iCal to this package? Well, one of the most frustrating tasks that I was ever delegated was to find an easy to use cross-platform calendar program similar to Calendar Creator (which is about 10,000 years old.) I suggested that iCal was the easiest calendar program I knew of, but unfortunately it wasn't cross platform, so no dice. In the end, the answer was that there aren't any cross-platform calendar programs even remotely similar to Calendar Creator, so guess what they're still using? Ug...
This brings up Mail and Address Book. In terms of an office setting, Apple's integration of these programs makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, without them, you're left depending on MS Outlook, the latest incarnation of which is quite possibly one of the most frustrating programs in the history of the universe. Not only that, but providing an office solution without a viable e-mail client (when MS already does so) wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for the end user.
Now I know what you're saying - giving away bits of iLife and iWork reduces people's incentive to switch, which should be every Mac fanboy's goal. After all, why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free (or $149, at the very least.) Apple, however, doesn't seem to feel the same way, at least not entirely. They've already ported Safari to Windows in a very cunning attempt at increasing the Mac's foothold in the Windows Universe. Making a foray into office productivity would balance the bar even further in Apple's favour. Granted, in my ideal universe we'd have an all-Mac workflow and I wouldn't need to be having this argument. Unfortunately, the cost of our beloved Mac hardware makes stingy IT purchasers balk at that prospect. I mean think about it - are you really going to pop $999 so that your front desk receptionist can have a striking new iMac, when you could outfit her with an $499 Dell instead? I think not.
But what about the switchers? Those loyal converts that Apple has lovingly wooed to it's bosom with it's amazing hardware and suite of exclusive applications? The beauty is that they would still be getting the majority of these Apps for free, while Windows clients would be paying a premium. Moreover, if such a move provided to be financially successful, Apple could toy with the idea of bundling iWork with OS X and making up the lost revenue though the Windows sales. Plus, having more copies of iWork on Macs would only further increase the likelihood of it popping up elsewhere.
All in all, I think it would be a sound prospect, both financially and strategically. It would be like delivering an entire cooler of Coke and push-up pops to someone in hell, and that's a pretty fun analogy.
is tipping the scales to be more even?