New Office for Mac to Come Next Spring, Office for iOS Not Arriving Until Fall 2014?

[Truffy]

Office is becoming irrelevant. The iPad has flourished despite not having MS Office and that's an encouraging sign. The days of Microsoft software being a "must have" for success are over.

Today people just care about having some sort of import/export capability and are comfortable with non Microsoft solutions.

For you, it may be becoming irrelevant. But going as an independent consultant MSO really is the only solution in the area that I work. Not only that, but Office Mac is not 100% compatible with Windows and Excel 2011 has been butchered in terms of functionality.

All of which has left e having to buy a goddam Windows computer just to get work.

 

[BayouTiger]

I started putting Open Office on the few Mac clients I have for simple stuff.

I still prefer Office because trying to use Mail/iCal/AddressBook is a mess. Mail and iCal are fine, but Address Book is lousy and Outlook 2011 is serviceable.

 

[coolspot18]

Office is becoming irrelevant. The iPad has flourished despite not having MS Office and that's an encouraging sign. The days of Microsoft software being a "must have" for success are over.

Today people just care about having some sort of import/export capability and are comfortable with non Microsoft solutions.

For your own documents, notes, school work may be.

But for real work, unfortunately we still need Microsoft Office. There isn't a single office suite on iOS or Android that has acceptable import/export. The current apps probably have about 50% import/export compatibility which won't do corporate work.

 

[Bhatu]

Skydrive vs iCloud ?

I am not sure in present scenario how MS Office 14 will pitch in, giving the fact that MS Office cloud service is entirely based on Skydrive/Azure and on Mac we already have iCloud. Additionally I believe their UI doesn't comply with Apple HCI guidelines so getting clearance from Appstore would be tough.

 

[roadbloc]

Office is becoming irrelevant.

Hahaha. Right. Keep telling yourself that.

 

[ptram]

How often do you use Numbers or Pages on you iPad?

I use Pages each time I have to exchange office data with someone using the .doc format. I don't use Numbers, but QuickOffice HD is doing a decent work with .xls files.

 

[ptram]

Outlook is the only viable Exchange calendar client on the Mac

But what's so bad in using Exchange accounts with iOS's own Calendar app?

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But for real work, unfortunately we still need Microsoft Office

I see it the opposite way: Microsoft Office, and oddly-overformatted documents, are the main issue in my work. I will be happy when it is finally gone.

 

[Roller]

But what's so bad in using Exchange accounts with iOS's own Calendar app?

Nothing, although I prefer Fantastical to the native iOS calendar app. It lets me display my schedule (which is mostly posted to by other people in my organization) and occasionally add events. I had less success with Calendar on the desktop, however. Events didn't post reliably, and there was no way to color code them by category. Not that Outlook is perfect - for example, you can't specify a different time zone for the start and end of an event, as you would want to do for a flight - but it's the best solution for Exchange scheduling on the Mac desktop that I know of.

 

[StoneJack]

Hahaha. Right. Keep telling yourself that.

I think he is right.
More people use iOS and OS X, more they forget about Office.
Pages, Keynote and Numbers are pretty good for 90% of respective needs.
On Android, situation is same, they just have another bunch of office programs plus Docs. It means that something like 99% of smartphone and tablet users, generally speaking, all mobile world is doing just great without Office (except for few poor souls who bought Windows 8). Those poorer souls who bought Windows RT, can't even send an email, because their Office doesn't even have email client.

Thats hahaha.

 

[shokk]

I think he is right.
More people use iOS and OS X, more they forget about Office.
Pages, Keynote and Numbers are pretty good for 90% of respective needs.
On Android, situation is same, they just have another bunch of office programs plus Docs. It means that something like 99% of smartphone and tablet users, generally speaking, all mobile world is doing just great without Office (except for few poor souls who bought Windows 8). Those poorer souls who bought Windows RT, can't even send an email, because their Office doesn't even have email client.

Thats hahaha.

The business world continues to use irrelevant technology, thus making it relevant. I got rid of my last desktop in 2008, but still every cubicle at my company has a desktop or two. Very few people have laptops, and tablets are sporadically used by the executives, since they set their own rules. Office is a huge part of the scene, because it will always be attached to the hip so long as you use Windows.

Why? Because everyone always uses the excuse “our partner uses it so we need it for communication with them.” Which just means that eventually everyone needed Office and that’s why it’s all over my office.

We are a developer shop, where almost every desktop was Ubuntu using OpenOffice. No more - now it’s Office 365.

 

[alexkywalker]

So when?

I realized that this thread has digressed into several lateral discussions, but back to the original point, does anybody know if there is a release date yet?