iWork has no game against Office or WordPerfect
All the fuss over Apple's iWork productivity suite sales numbers may be much ado about nothing, contacts tell AppleInsider.
While Apple's iWork retail-based sales in the US may have accelerated throughout 2005, recently published data has inaccurately been used to suggest the fledgling software suite is quickly emerging as a competitor to Microsoft's Office.
A recent report used iWork retail sales numbers from research firm NPD to suggest that the software was on its way to sidestepping Word Perfect as the primary rival to Office.
However, when compared to Corel's WordPerfect, overall data from NPD (which excludes OEM and direct sales) indicates that iWork lags far behind in sales -- especially when other sales channels are factored into the mix.
"NPD shows that iWork sold around 50,000 units at retail last year. Corel sold that many [copies of WordPerfect] to one account in the Department of Justice," Richard Carriere, general manager of office productivity for Corel, told AppleInsider. "Looking at brick and mortar retail as a metric or indicator of a trend is incomplete and misleading."
Corel maintains that it offers the leading alternative to Office, outselling iWork ten to fifteen times over. "If you were to take into account OEM and direct, millions have chosen WordPerfect Office in the last year," said Carriere. "We stand very strongly behind our claim as provider of the leading alternative to Microsoft Office."
Corel isn't the only party to rally to its own defense. Analyst also agree that comparing iWork sales to those of WordPerfect (or Office) based on data from single sales channel is unfair. To form a more solid comparison, they suggest that all sales channels be analyzed, including e-stores, commercial resellers, value added resellers and OEM.
"iWork isn't an Office suite," Joe Wilcox, an analyst for JupiterResearch, told AppleInsider. The analyst says it's even a stretch to say the software, which contains only two programs, is on par with products like Microsoft Works. "Any iWork comparison to Microsoft Office or WordPerfect is an apples-to-oranges comparison, at best," he said.
Wilcox says that, according to JupiterResearch usage surveys, WordPerfect remains the No. 2 office suite behind Microsoft Office in the consumer, SMB and enterprise markets with roughly a 15 percent share in each market. "There's an obvious logic problem with the contention that iWork, which is only available for Macs, could somehow rival Microsoft Office," the analyst added.
The rising popularity of iWork is undoubtedly a good thing for Apple and the Mac OS X platform, but it will be a quite a while before the productivity suite can pit itself against offerings from industry heavyweights Corel and Microsoft.
While Apple's iWork retail-based sales in the US may have accelerated throughout 2005, recently published data has inaccurately been used to suggest the fledgling software suite is quickly emerging as a competitor to Microsoft's Office.
A recent report used iWork retail sales numbers from research firm NPD to suggest that the software was on its way to sidestepping Word Perfect as the primary rival to Office.
However, when compared to Corel's WordPerfect, overall data from NPD (which excludes OEM and direct sales) indicates that iWork lags far behind in sales -- especially when other sales channels are factored into the mix.
"NPD shows that iWork sold around 50,000 units at retail last year. Corel sold that many [copies of WordPerfect] to one account in the Department of Justice," Richard Carriere, general manager of office productivity for Corel, told AppleInsider. "Looking at brick and mortar retail as a metric or indicator of a trend is incomplete and misleading."
Corel maintains that it offers the leading alternative to Office, outselling iWork ten to fifteen times over. "If you were to take into account OEM and direct, millions have chosen WordPerfect Office in the last year," said Carriere. "We stand very strongly behind our claim as provider of the leading alternative to Microsoft Office."
Corel isn't the only party to rally to its own defense. Analyst also agree that comparing iWork sales to those of WordPerfect (or Office) based on data from single sales channel is unfair. To form a more solid comparison, they suggest that all sales channels be analyzed, including e-stores, commercial resellers, value added resellers and OEM.
"iWork isn't an Office suite," Joe Wilcox, an analyst for JupiterResearch, told AppleInsider. The analyst says it's even a stretch to say the software, which contains only two programs, is on par with products like Microsoft Works. "Any iWork comparison to Microsoft Office or WordPerfect is an apples-to-oranges comparison, at best," he said.
Wilcox says that, according to JupiterResearch usage surveys, WordPerfect remains the No. 2 office suite behind Microsoft Office in the consumer, SMB and enterprise markets with roughly a 15 percent share in each market. "There's an obvious logic problem with the contention that iWork, which is only available for Macs, could somehow rival Microsoft Office," the analyst added.
The rising popularity of iWork is undoubtedly a good thing for Apple and the Mac OS X platform, but it will be a quite a while before the productivity suite can pit itself against offerings from industry heavyweights Corel and Microsoft.
Comments
Originally posted by AppleInsider
recently published data has inaccurately been used to suggest the fledgling software suite is quickly emerging as a competitor to Microsoft's Office.
I don't think it suggests that at all. All it suggests that of of 2-3 extremely distant competitors, Apple's iWork is doing alright (sales-wise). It's probably doing what Apple needs it to do (pay for itself).
However, compare Keynote to PowerPoint and Keynote is leaps and bounds greater.
But Pages is not a competitor of Word or WordPerfect. It's a different kind of app--better for some people, but Word is best for others.
PS, Don't forget that WordPerfect for Mac is free now
iWork has its bright spots, but other than Keynote, it's difficult to compare it with Office. And given the ubiquity of Word docs in all aspects of business, education, and goverment - this isn't going to change any time soon. At least it won't change until there is a comparable Excel alternative.
I despise windows, but MacOffice is actually quite good (with some quibbles). It's time for MacSheep to accept this.
As for sales... oh please. 50,000?! That's flyspit. In the Mac world there may be some folks who purchase iWork, but it's still a distant second. In the overall computing world, the only reason iWork would be in second place is because there aren't any real alternatives out there (WordPerfect Office notwithstanding).
It's kind like saying your party finished second in the election, while ignoring the fact that it's 1% of the vote.
Originally posted by umijin
But MacOffice is actually quite good (with some quibbles). It's time for MacSheep to accept this.
Who's MacSheep, precious, who's MacSheep?
Originally posted by kim kap sol
Who's MacSheep, precious, who's MacSheep?
Heh heh.. nobody in particular. Just those who accept anything Apple pumps out w/o thinking. Accolytes of the Church of Jobs?
Originally posted by AppleInsider
All the fuss over Apple's iWork productivity suite sales numbers may be much ado about nothing, contacts tell AppleInsider.
Uh, I don't think anybody was saying iWork is a major competitor to Word on all platforms.
The thing I remember from the original article is that in the Mac market, iWork was something less than 20% of the market to Microsoft's 70-something %. That is a big deal.
Sure, you may say that the Mac market is tiny, but MS is clearly making lots of money with Mac Office, otherwise they would've killed the project long ago. So presumably iWork is profitable for Apple, and that's clearly what matters.
iWork's near-20% market share must be galling to MS, especially considering iWork doesn't even have a spreadsheet, and didn't have any spreadsheet-like capability until a few weeks ago.
Gee, can anyone guess why MS is now promising Office for the Mac for another 5 years? It was in payment for Apple killing Cells or whatever their supposed spreadsheet project was.
Either believe the "old standard" or move to the new reality.
Cheers.. and here's to a virus free computer experience....
Originally posted by NeutrixX
I call bullsh*t! I use iWork in place of Microsh*t
Well, this gives you instant credibility.
iWork isn't even a good competitor to the now ancient Appleworks, which has been abandoned.
Yes, yes, I know that Pages is nice, and that Keynote works well also. But it doesn't have a spreadsheet, painting program, drawing program, or database.
Appleworks may have been simple in each of its functions, but overall, it was always considered to be far better than Microsoft Works.
Once Numbers is added, assuming it would go into iWork and assuming it is a spreadsheet program, then we can talk about being considered an office-type suite. Some sort of database app would help as that has been part of many different office suites maybe fifteen years now, I remember using such a suite that ran in DOS character mode.
Firstly, there's only one OEM that could bundle in iWork, Apple, and it doesn't. If it did, they'd miraculously sell another 5 million copies a year. It'd be easy for Apple to immediately jump to number two in the market and quite possibly number 1 on the Mac. I wonder where AppleWorks was on the OEM market sales though?
Secondly, what the NPD figures showed was that when users have to buy the package themselves outside of OEM bundles or corporate bulk purchases, iWork is the number two choice. That's good news for Apple and bad for Corel. I wonder how many users who got Corel Office free with their PC actually use it? Just as many people don't use AppleWorks.
Thirdly, little sticklebacks fighting in the pond when there's a whale in the deep end is particularly stupid. They should combine forces.
50,000 copies of iWork in the last year though - that's 2.75 million pounds. Not bad. I bet that's paid for the development at least and that's just US sales. Now let's hope there's more sales this year so they can push on with development.
Pages is slick. I'd like to see "version" features added and "track changes," but other than that I can't think of anything I'm missing. Add a spreadsheet, and I'd be very happy to never touch Office again. But to think that iWork is any sort of commercial competitor to Microsoft Office is laughable.
Originally posted by melgross
iWork isn't even a good competitor to the now ancient Appleworks, which has been abandoned.
Yes, yes, I know that Pages is nice, and that Keynote works well also. But it doesn't have a spreadsheet, painting program, drawing program, or database.
Apart from the spreadsheet, neither has MS Mac Office. ;-)
I was actually hoping Apple would buy in the missing bits this past year rather than piss off another couple of 3rd party developers.
Where is the free WordPerfect for Mac OS 9?
Any petition of WordPerfect for Mac OS X on line anywhere? We hate M$ Word and would love to purchase WordPerfect for Mac OS X when if available.
Cannot find any information at http://www.corel.com
Thanks.
I just produced a doc for work, and found it much easier and quicker to do the work in Pages 2.0, and then export to Word format for 'industry standard compatibility' The Word export appears flawless now, too.
Originally posted by Fireball1244
But to think that iWork is any sort of commercial competitor to Microsoft Office is laughable.
iWork has almost 20% of the market. So clearly, at least 20% of the market doesn't need a spreadsheet. I know a lot of people who've never even used one. And I'll bet half of the people who own iWork have never even opened Keynote.
Most people surf the web, check e-mail, listen to iTunes, and use a word processor. And that's pretty much it. For that 20%-40% of the market, iWork is plenty. It's just enough marketshare to piss off Microsoft.
Clearly, as it stands, iWork could never garner more than half of the Office market, so it won't own the market anytime soon. Probably never, since MS got Numbers killed off. But it seems silly to say that everybody needs a spreadsheet or database or drawing program or whatever.
Yeah, if Apple wants to own the market it needs a spreadsheet. If it just wants a compelling, profitable product, it'll be happy with 20% of the market and leave it pretty much as is.
However gaining 20% of Mac market share AND encouraging MS to re-commit for five years is a job well done.