Office for iOS Could See a Boost if Stephen Elop Named Microsoft CEO

[bsolar]

Elop Destroyed Nokia's value in a little over 6 months after taking over, I would seriously short M$ stock if he's tapped

I'm not sure he destroyed Nokia's value due to incompetence, more likely he competently made it cheaper for Microsoft to buy it.

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Elop made Nokia a long-term competitor again. Their sales are growing faster than anyone else's right now, and their hardware is the best in the business.

You cannot compare the sales growt of someone starting in the single digits with someone with an already large market share. Obligatory xkcd...

 

[Tysknaden]

But this wasn't an accident... Elop is a very talented and useful man

Elop Destroyed Nokia's value in a little over 6 months after taking over, I would seriously short M$ stock if he's tapped

 

[StoneJack]

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.

Can you point at things which specifically make you use Office?
I work in multi OS environment where we have to use a lot of word-processing and presentations with occasional spreadsheets and there hasn't been a single instance when Pages, Keynote and Numbers were not up to task. On the contrary, in some instances the ease of use and convenience of features of new iWork (and I still keep the old iWork 2009) is so tremendous that I fully abandoned any Windows or MS Office apps and work exclusively in Pages/Keynote/Numbers. I bought them all long ago both for iOS and OS X and receive free updates.When I forgot at home one file, iWork on iCloud.com was available and my Keynote presentation was there, in iCloud! I only had to add few words and export as pdf for presentation! This was great experience

 

[osx11]

How about an update to Office 2011!

Have you outgrown office's capabilities?

Or do you just want an update for the sake of it?

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MS is going to continue its slide into irrelevancy until it can separate the notion that their products are subservient to selling Windows licenses.

Just curious, how would you improve Windows without copying Mac OS? I think apple nailed it with Mac OS to a point where anything but copying it will fail long term.

 

[nia820]

Nobody needs Microsoft Office. Pages, Numbers, Keynote are the killer apps that are driving productivity for millions of enterprise users on desktop and mobile platforms.

i hope you are being sarcastic.

 

[macs4nw]

Nobody needs Microsoft Office. Pages, Numbers, Keynote are the killer apps that are driving productivity for millions of enterprise users on desktop and mobile platforms.

iWork was good enough for many users, and it will be adequate for many again, when all the removed functionality and features are restored once more, as promised. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1668061/

 

[Steve121178]

Have you outgrown office's capabilities?

Or do you just want an update for the sake of it?

I would like it to be on par with Office 2010/2013. So yes.

You can be happy with mediocrity if you want.

 

[Nevaborn]

Can you point at things which specifically make you use Office?
I work in multi OS environment where we have to use a lot of word-processing and presentations with occasional spreadsheets and there hasn't been a single instance when Pages, Keynote and Numbers were not up to task. On the contrary, in some instances the ease of use and convenience of features of new iWork (and I still keep the old iWork 2009) is so tremendous that I fully abandoned any Windows or MS Office apps and work exclusively in Pages/Keynote/Numbers. I bought them all long ago both for iOS and OS X and receive free updates.When I forgot at home one file, iWork on iCloud.com was available and my Keynote presentation was there, in iCloud! I only had to add few words and export as pdf for presentation! This was great experience

Pages is missing several features for me to adopt it over Word for work.

•I need to be able to add proper tables and borders with a pages documents

•I need to be able to properly reduce gaps between text with minimal fuss,

•Format images and text efficiently

•When inserting pictures have plenty of editing tools at my disposal.

•Vertical and horizontal margins easily manipulated.


Once all this gets near enough then pages will replace word

 

[Yoda Mann]

Excellent

Shoot, why should Windows users have to suffer alone with PowerPoint, EVERYBODY should suffer with PowerPoint.

 

[osx11]

I would like it to be on par with Office 2010/2013. So yes.

You can be happy with mediocrity if you want.

I know what you're saying and there are certainly things to add, but the times of frequent/revolutionary software upgrades are quickly coming to an end.

The fact that iOS, OSX, iLife, and iWork are now free is not so much because Apple loves to give away free stuff but because Apple has realized that they can't charge money for increasingly smaller upgrades. Let's face it, besides an OSX facelift next year, we likely aren't going to see revolutionary upgrades for a while. OSX has stagnated over the past years because it works and is, in many aspects, perfect for a lot of things.

I'm interested to see how software companies like Microsoft manage to overcome this.

 

[alexgowers]

For me anyone but balmier is a plus. Ms aren't the bad they used to be they like apple only need to concentrate on making the end consumer happy. If they do anything that seems like a money making exercise they would ruin the benefit of getting rid of Steve balmer.

I really think that ms could be huge again in hardware and software they just need to wipe that mentality of profits and middle management. They need to instead go for making the very best products they can and ios office is part of that but in a very stripped easy to use version that still supports all the features just make them simple and hide pro user stuff in menus that you can customise.

It seems like ms has been doing nothing for a very long time and has been very inconsistent with their offerings. Win 8 was a huge mistake but rather than get feedback from users they forged ahead trying to shoe horn touch into non touch devices with no consideration for the purpose of a laptop.

Apple did it the other way round had two totally separate designs and is slowly getting users of both to use features of each. Mac OS still has some modernising to go but it's all getting there as a unified system but thankfully not a touch os in sight on the laptop. You could add touch features if you were in for compromise but it's best to stick to qwerty or touch as they are really for different uses and have different levels of precision etc.

Oh I really do wish ms luck with him.

 

[Steve121178]

I'm interested to see how software companies like Microsoft manage to overcome this.

They already have with Office 365. You pay a yearly fee and get continuous updates & SkyDrive storage. You can use your subscription with your Mac but as the next release for Mac is still in development, they made 2011 available to 365 customers.

Is Office 365 worth paying for? Absolutely as it has no competition apart from the free garbage available, plus if you are a business user then MS Office is, in nearly all cases, the standard.

Office 2011 is an abomination in terms of UI, yet is still infinitely better than other rival offerings from Apple, Google, LibreOffice etc.

To put things into perspective, Office 2003 is about a trillion times better than the most recent releases of Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

 

[MacMulti]

If Elop made MS CEO, competitors will pop champagne to celebrate it.

 

[AnalyzeThis]

I'm not sure he destroyed Nokia's value due to incompetence, more likely he competently made it cheaper for Microsoft to buy it.

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You cannot compare the sales growt of someone starting in the single digits with someone with an already large market share. Obligatory xkcd...

Agreed, it also would be a hard to sell to shareholders a guy with such bad reputation. Or better off, MS should put guy in change of Windows 8 as CEO.

If it comes through though, it would be wonderful news for all non-Windows users and reinforce our great decision to abandon Windows as a computing platform.

As post above correctly noted: I hope time to pop cork and celebrate is coming soon!

Good Luck MS!

 

[kds1]

Microsoft needs to break up into three separate companies: Windows, Office, and Xbox.

 

[Steve121178]

If Elop made MS CEO, competitors will pop champagne to celebrate it.

He turned Nokia around from inevitable certain death to a large player in the smartphone market.

 

[0007776]

Can you point at things which specifically make you use Office?

I'm in college, and any assignments that get turned in online need to be in .doc or .docx formats, and Pages regularly screws up the formatting if I use the export to word option. Keynote also looses most of the formatting when you export to powerpoint. I like iWork, I just don't trust it for doing a great job converting to office formats which I need most everything to be in.

 

[osx11]

They already have with Office 365. You pay a yearly fee and get continuous updates & SkyDrive storage. You can use your subscription with your Mac but as the next release for Mac is still in development, they made 2011 available to 365 customers.

Is Office 365 worth paying for? Absolutely as it has no competition apart from the free garbage available, plus if you are a business user then MS Office is, in nearly all cases, the standard.

Office 2011 is an abomination in terms of UI, yet is still infinitely better than other rival offerings from Apple, Google, LibreOffice etc.

To put things into perspective, Office 2003 is about a trillion times better than the most recent releases of Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

The thing is companies will use Office for the foreseeable future. I just don't see a reason to pay $99 for personal private use. For this, Google, Pages, Open Office etc. will be enough.

Employees who need Office at home will get it with their laptops and university students also tend to get it free.

I just think apple has the home user in mind, and that part of the population won't pay $100 a year for software that is only occasionally needed. And for that part of the population, which I think is rather large, even Office 2001 would be overkill in terms of features.

 

[cgsnipinva]

Microsoft - despite its foibles in the consumer market - is not the walking dead as many here state. It is solidly in the enterprise and has many back end solutions that are popular and make money.

Now spinning off the Xbox division is idiotic as it is a venue into the home and consumer market. If leveraged properly it can delivery content as well as video games and become the "hub" of the home. Microsoft can also increase its portion of the video game market which is a cash cow as a market space.

I would think it would be smart to make Office not specifically tied to Windows and have it operate on its own to work on multiple platforms. That would force Windows to survive on its own merits.

 

[StoneJack]

I'm in college, and any assignments that get turned in online need to be in .doc or .docx formats, and Pages regularly screws up the formatting if I use the export to word option. Keynote also looses most of the formatting when you export to powerpoint. I like iWork, I just don't trust it for doing a great job converting to office formats which I need most everything to be in.

You need design for college assignments? I think for normal assignments and design Pages exports just well. I wrote a number of research reports in Pages and had no difficulties in converting them to Word (but who needs Word? Pdf is a choice for export).

 

[Banyan Bruce]

Nobody needs Microsoft Office. Pages, Numbers, Keynote are the killer apps that are driving productivity for millions of enterprise users on desktop and mobile platforms.

Except in the UK where we are so Windows / Office centric, it's almost become a national myopia.

Until iPads and Macs get a real toe hold in educational establishments then the UK will continue to live in the 1990s MS bubble.

It's so disappointing to see all the potential for learning that iOS and OSX offer being squandered by ICT managers and accountants whose only real concern is convience and initial cost compounded by a total lack of imagination or inability to listen to the end users. Stoves pipe MS thinking will never be dead whilst accountants, ICT managers and timid, target driven head teachers drive educational ICT provision in the UK.

 

[SeattleMoose]

I am no MS fan. But i have to say, I want them to continue to do well along with Google/Android. Why? To keep Apple honest and from becoming too lax or full of themselves. I have seen a few hints of where Apple is going with some of their stuff (e.g. cloud emphasis, allergic to I/O ports, premature adoption of $$$/half-baked technologies) that quite frankly, I don't care for. But that is true with every company. Regardless, every company needs competition to stay healthy and focused. I remain completely an Apple Fanboy but….having options is more important than any one company.

Never thought I'd say this but……Go Softy!!!

 

[Krazy Bill]

Yay! Another MS bashing thread in an Apple forum. MacRumors must need the page hits.

You guys are hilarious. You're either all retired, under the age of 14 without jobs or never collaborate in the Enterprise market. MS isn't the enemy. Do you know what Office would do for iPad sales? Yes, it would hurt the Surface but I hope one day MS realizes how much $$ it can be made in iOS/Android support. (I'll most likely be retired when/if that happens though. )

And no... that crap MS calls Office for iOS isn't really "Office" so hold the posts telling me it already exists.

Nobody needs Microsoft Office. Pages, Numbers, Keynote are the killer apps that are driving productivity for millions of enterprise users on desktop and mobile platforms.

 

[mypins]

Yeah. Maybe he'll figure out how to sync Office with iCal!

 

[HurtinMinorKey]

Nobody needs Microsoft Office. Pages, Numbers, Keynote are the killer apps that are driving productivity for millions of enterprise users on desktop and mobile platforms.

Yah, for boutique clothing stores and coffee shops worldwide. Meanwhile, everyone else still uses Office. It's the most institutionalized part of MS's business, even more so than Windows. But perhaps you were being sarcastic.