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Office for iOS Could See a Boost if Stephen Elop Named Microsoft CEO
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"Outspoken Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw bluntly responded to Bloomberg's request for comment, stating that "We appreciate Bloomberg's foray into fiction and look forward to future episodes.""
Love that. I want to work for PR for a company that lets me talk like that all of the time. It would be so much fun.
Love that. I want to work for PR for a company that lets me talk like that all of the time. It would be so much fun.
Just to get a few facts on the table in this discussion:
Source 1. Source 2.
- Microsoft remained highly profitable in 2013, with solid year-over-year growth in both revenue and operating income.
- The Business (Office) division brings in significantly more money than the Windows division (+30% revenue, +70% profit). In fact, nearly half of Microsofts 2013 profits came from the Business division alone.
- For the first time ever ( ), the Windows division was actually 3rd in revenue in 2013, behind both Business and Server/Tools. If trends from the past four years continue in 2014, Server and Tools will pass Windows in not just revenue, but profitability as well.
- Regardless of division, the vast majority of Microsofts profits come from business and OEM sales. Consumer-centric divisions (including XBox, Windows Phone, Bing) are largely irrelevant from a profit standpoint.
- In 2012, Apple pulled in double the revenue of Microsoft ($156 billion USD and $74 billion, respectively).
- Microsoft's Xbox division has lost nearly $3 billion in 10 years
Source 1. Source 2.
I rarely use word processors...I don't need any more functionality than the newest version of pages provides.
HOWEVER
I DO need to my documents to work in a world where Word is the de facto standard (And sometime de jure; I've had multiple professors require assignments be submitted in .doc/.docx). So far, every Word document I've opened in this new version of pages has had the formatting horribly, horribly mangled - in one case turning a 12 page document into a 23 page document with just an illegible mess of broken sentences and giant spaces and gaps for no apparent reason.
If Microsoft can make their product fit my very simple needs faster than Apple can, It's pretty sad on Apple's part.
HOWEVER
I DO need to my documents to work in a world where Word is the de facto standard (And sometime de jure; I've had multiple professors require assignments be submitted in .doc/.docx). So far, every Word document I've opened in this new version of pages has had the formatting horribly, horribly mangled - in one case turning a 12 page document into a 23 page document with just an illegible mess of broken sentences and giant spaces and gaps for no apparent reason.
If Microsoft can make their product fit my very simple needs faster than Apple can, It's pretty sad on Apple's part.
Yes, but Apple just gutted Pages by removing about 160 features from it. OK because of the huge number of complaints they are now promising to put a few of those removed features back but it will be half a year before only a few are restored. Pages will be usable for only simple office memos and kid's homework for years to come. Yes that is all most users need but corporate offices can't switch to Pages until it covers what 99% of people need, 90% is not good enough.
Pages can no longer do something as simple as flow text between two text boxes. This feature was removed. Outlining was removed. Simple basic stuff like this is gone from Pages and Apple has no plans to put it back.
Elop was put in place at Nokia to destroy the company and get the share price as low as possible for the Microsoft take over. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. That doesn't mean he will not be a good CEO.
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Use iWork 09 until they add the features back in.
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Use iWork 09 until they add the features back in.
Elop was Microsoft's Trojan Horse in Nokia. Worked in Microsoft from 2008-2010, then became the Nokia CEO and now this may be his reward: The throne of Microsoft.
And then they complain there's no innovation happening in Microsoft. NO DUH. Their CEOs were busy doing this bureaucratic crap! That's what they're good at and that's pretty much it.
And then they complain there's no innovation happening in Microsoft. NO DUH. Their CEOs were busy doing this bureaucratic crap! That's what they're good at and that's pretty much it.
So in another few years, Nokia might have half the market share it had before Elop's "Burning Platform" memory went out?
And end up like LG, HTC, Sony, <insert other Android company> that make zero profits and suffer from declining market share?
There would be no buyer now for them, since Google already owns Motorola (and surely they won't buy another phone maker that does nothing but turn in losses).
Maybe he could "trojan-sabotage" Microsoft itself, then MSFT stock value would tank, and then Elop will eventually negotiate for Apple's bargain takeover of Microsoft. I mean, Elop is already good at executing this maneuver.
If Elop is named CEO of MS, there is an easy way for him to prove he was not a mole and that he tried his best to get Nokia out of its troubles. Just write a memo about the rapid rise of competing platforms against Windows, announce iOS and Android native Office to be released in a year and discontinue Windows version of Office, effective immediately.
I believe a competent leadership team could have used Nokia's tremendous brand advantages such as customer loyalty, reputation for durability, and top-notch designs to compete more successfully than LG, HTC, and Sony, none of which have ever been particularly great in the phone market. Those latter companies operated on razor thin margins and couldn't gain traction to get to the volume they needed.
On the other hand, Nokia's been able to build very high end phones with great margins. Nokia has made many of the best phones of their time for many years. From a hardware standpoint, they still do today. I believe they could have made top-notch Android sets and gone toe-to-toe with Samsung. And I'm hardly the only person to think so.
You can believe otherwise and we'll never really know, but what we do know for sure is that the route they took didn't work.
Thanks for today's best chuckle, Phil.
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Sure. Replace a failed marketing drone with a failed logistics drone.
Selling off Xbox? The only profitable and loved part of your company?
Wow, just saw off your legs why don't you MS
What gave you the idea that the Xbox division is the "only profitable" part of Microsoft? The Xbox division has always, with a few minor exceptions, been bleeding money from MS.
The Xbox division and Sony's Playstation division almost killed each other last generation.
Without Offic MS can pretty much burn the hell up.
iWork is amazing. Creating documents is ******* easy; yet powerful. Numbers is crazy sick.
iWork is amazing. Creating documents is ******* easy; yet powerful. Numbers is crazy sick.
Selling off Xbox? The only profitable and loved part of your company?
Wow, just saw off your legs why don't you MS
What makes you think it is a profitable venture?
I work in Finance and iWork apps are actually starting to make a presence and gain a little tracking in the workplace. When sharing complex spreadsheets we still use Excel. When working on a group presentation, we use PowerPoint. At other times those who favor Macs or iPads are able to use Numbers and Keynote and more and more folks will accept these without a file conversion. Some will even email out .pdf versions of these or MS file format versions when necessary.
I think MS is missing the boat and by the time they offer Office on iOS, we will have gotten used to and implemented other solutions. office is great but it's expensive and MS is slow to offer it on the platforms most folks are moving to. I believe this is a tragic mistake.
I think MS is missing the boat and by the time they offer Office on iOS, we will have gotten used to and implemented other solutions. office is great but it's expensive and MS is slow to offer it on the platforms most folks are moving to. I believe this is a tragic mistake.
I assume you meant "memo". If Nokia didn't switch OSes, they'd have gone the way of Blackberry. They have a helluvalot more marketshare now than they would have if they had stayed the course. Would they have more marketshare RIGHT NOW if they had made Android phones instead? MAYBE. ...maybe not, but more likely they would. RIGHT NOW. Elop saw an opportunity to position Nokia as the WP flagship brand, and it's paying off. As Windows Phone continues to grow, the vast majority of WPs are Nokia. ...and they will continue to grow. Windows Phone IS the third big dog in the game, you just don't realize it yet.
True. But...
- Add a keyboard to your iPad and it becomes a whole new experience. But there is a lot to be desired for the options - carrying extra hardware, or an on-screen kbd, or even a cover-style keyboard. But I believe Apple can innovate here. Such as, wouldn't it be nice to be able to speak your document and have it type itself? And then format itself depending on a handful of custom formats you enjoy? Kinda a mashup between Word, DragonSoft, and Pandora.
- Where else will MS grow? Their desktop business is shrinking globally. Embedded systems have a number of challengers like Linux (and maybe someday iOS). Mobile is a bust for their OS so far. MS is stuck in first gear. Check their stock price the last 10 years. Nobody expects them to do anything right, and they are satisfying that expectation. Sewing up the tablet market would be a step in the right direction.
I am certain that content creation on iOS is being given plenty of clock cycles in Cupertino...
Pages and Numbers are great, but I've given up using them and gone back to office since I need things to be compatible with the rest of the world. It's nice that you don't need that, but a lot of people do.My iPad was delivered today. As soon as I get home I'm putting Pages and Numbers on it. Done, all the office apps I need. Sorry MS (not really
Where did you pick that number from? It is just completely wrong.
The Xbox division has been profitable every year since 2008.