"...and find it interesting that the company is giving the downloads away for free. This is likely because they know they can't sell the applications themselves while Apple is including iWork for free with all new iOS device purchases"
No. It's the only way to avoid giving Apple 30% of their cut.
It is not really free. Without subscription, it is only a glorified document viewer.
Subscription is licensing model MS is pushing hard nowadays across the whole (supported) market. Even in corporate volume licensing, MS is gunning for Office 365 or Open Level Subscription.
For people who are upgrading to new versions of Office (or are paying Software Assurance through Open Value model), subscription should come with comparable price - maybe even a bit cheaper. In addition, it offers additional benefits - license count step-up and step-down, which could be handy for companies with "seasonal" workers. Office 365, for example, includes all the required Lync licensing, which are completely crazy unrealistic if you want to purchase them through other options.
Reason for pushing subscriptions is not because of users who do upgrade, but for users who purchase one Office and use it forever. You'd be surprised how many people still use Office 2003. From MS point of view, that is 11 years of lost income.
This is #4, but it's just a 'hands-on' article. Expect an 'in-depth review' this weekend.
I think they fucked up with the picture rotation; they clearly use a mouse with their tablet, and clearly haven't used the app after compiling it.
First comes the on-depth overview then comes the in-depth review and finally the depth-adjacent review which gets feedback on your thoughts of the depthiness of their reviews.
Don't forget the mind-numbing, wandering-rant, jaw-dropping anti-Microsoft editorial!
Unfortunately, no mention in the hands-on review about the apps inability to work with DropBox or any non-Microsoft cloud-storage service. This makes these apps virtually useless to MANY if not most MS Office users, even those who are Office 365 subscribers.
Should every paragraph end with
"... this is how Apple showed their iWork.", "... this is exactly like Apple."
Come on!
No one beats Microsoft in Office suite, to be frank! They just dont have better OS and Hardware!
They don't really have hardware, short of Surface tablets...
Regarding their OEMs and concept of better hardware... isn't it really relative, down to one's individual needs?
I will be in market for new laptop later this year, and until recently I had two candidates - MBP 13" Retina and ThinkPad Carbon X1 (new one). Here in New Zealand, X1 with same RAM/storage is actually quite a bit more expensive than MBP; I think it is around NZ$3,000 for i7-4600U CPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD, and 14" 2560 x 1440 IPS screen. Battery is claimed to hold 8 hours, and machine is lighter than 13" MBP even if screen is 1" larger. But... comparable 13" MBP Retina is NZ$2,300. It is smaller and heavier, with a bit slower CPU (i5)... but it should squeeze at least 1 more hour from the battery, and is using better integrated graphics (Intel Iris). My laptop requirements are quite relaxed - I'm not using my personal laptop for work, so I don't even require Office on it - Lightroom is the only real requirement, Photoshop to much lesser degree... better gaming capabilities would be nice, but I gave up on light and portable gaming laptop some time back, every single one had an issue (poor screen, bulky, crappy battery life even in non-gaming scenarios)... rest, any OS would do, and I'm curious to give OSX a go.
However, Gigabyte has just released P34G v2. This is 14" gaming laptop, only 100g heavier than 13" MBP, reasonably thin (21mm). Not as premium built as MBP or X1, of course, and screen in "only" 1080p... but screen is of good IPS variety, and Haswel i7 CPU, 8GB or more of RAM, backlit keyboard, 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD with GTX 860M are quite tempting. I don't know pricing yet, but I'm expecting it not to go over NZ$2,500 for described configuration.
So now, it is between MBP and P34G v2. What is better hardware here... for me? I have gaming desktop, so I don't really need gaming laptop... but whenever I go to lan party, or we organize little tournament in the office after hours or weekends, I wish I can just take my laptop, instead of moving my desktop rig. Outside of graphics, Gigabyte will offer faster CPU, more storage (without sacrificing performance)... MPB will offer more premium finish, still better screen, better battery life (though Gigabyte can sacrifice spinner HDD for larger battery which should at least match MBP). What is better here? Machine with stronger insides or machine with better outsides? Much as I am concerned, I'm finding both equally attractive.
From what I can tell these apps offer IAP. So I'm assuming Apple gets a cut of any IAP? I figured MS would do anything possible to avoid giving Apple a cut. Unless some special deal has been worked out where Apple doesn't get a cut?
No cut. They sell their subscription on their own site. So basically they're paying $99/y for their membership at Apple, and use their infrastructure, 700M clients and the humongous name of Apple. Don't know how they got these apps pass, but we'll see.
I will tell you, I would pay a reasonable amount, say $49.99 to buy and own the app for the iPad. But no way am I paying $99/year for some subscription service just to run this thing on my iPad. No thank you M$
Exactly. I would probably be willing to pay about £20 each for Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the iPad. No way am I going to subscribe to Office 365.
Doesn't the in-app purchase to edit give Apple 30%? That's what I see for the iPad version?
There are three application from MS. I would expect one would have to pay the $99.99 for only one application, and the license would apply to the other two. Right?
Well, that's exactly like Excel 2010 on my Windows 7 machine at work. Four cores, only one being used - for *all* spreadsheets I have open and they are frequently all being recalculated every time a calculation changes in one of the sheets even if they are not linked in any way.
Minor gripe, though, since Excel is a really powerful albeit with many weird quirks. One gets used to it.
Ah. They fixed that in Excel 2012. On Windows 7, it's pretty impressive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lilgto64
I prefer Parallels - seems to work a bit better especially for graphics - although I am using the latest version of Parallels compared to version 4 on my work machine - not sure if I want to pay for the upgrade myself or try to convince the company to cover it. For work I have a couple apps that are windows only so have to use it - for home I do a lot more in the VM so the extra power helps, even though it is marginal.
Thanks. I've not got anything against Parallels, but it's always good to see what someone who's used both thinks, in case I'm missing out on something!
without Excel Macro's this entire announcement is pointless. good one Micro$haft way to replicate iWork in every way. as usual creating an us and them situation for the company that made you in the beginning.
So this is interesting i downloaded it and opened one of my excel spreadsheets. firstly all Formulas that refer to an external spreadsheet are instantly set as the last data saved. (no dynamically updating spreadsheets) the sparklines don't work and no pictures. so this app is worse than Numbers.
AI please do a good comparison review especially with these things.
Although i am not surprised that Microsoft's offering is not even as advertised as their offering are rarely as advertised i would have thought they would have gotten some features right.
It looks great. And I'm never buying it. $99 a year is completely absurd. As a teacher, I can buy full Office for Mac for what...$150? Why in the world would I subscribe to Office 365 for $100 a year?
Comments
It is not really free. Without subscription, it is only a glorified document viewer.
Subscription is licensing model MS is pushing hard nowadays across the whole (supported) market. Even in corporate volume licensing, MS is gunning for Office 365 or Open Level Subscription.
For people who are upgrading to new versions of Office (or are paying Software Assurance through Open Value model), subscription should come with comparable price - maybe even a bit cheaper. In addition, it offers additional benefits - license count step-up and step-down, which could be handy for companies with "seasonal" workers. Office 365, for example, includes all the required Lync licensing, which are completely crazy unrealistic if you want to purchase them through other options.
Reason for pushing subscriptions is not because of users who do upgrade, but for users who purchase one Office and use it forever. You'd be surprised how many people still use Office 2003. From MS point of view, that is 11 years of lost income.
Does it connect to DropBox?
Don't forget the mind-numbing, wandering-rant, jaw-dropping anti-Microsoft editorial!
Written by yours truly, the one and only......
They don't really have hardware, short of Surface tablets...
Regarding their OEMs and concept of better hardware... isn't it really relative, down to one's individual needs?
I will be in market for new laptop later this year, and until recently I had two candidates - MBP 13" Retina and ThinkPad Carbon X1 (new one). Here in New Zealand, X1 with same RAM/storage is actually quite a bit more expensive than MBP; I think it is around NZ$3,000 for i7-4600U CPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD, and 14" 2560 x 1440 IPS screen. Battery is claimed to hold 8 hours, and machine is lighter than 13" MBP even if screen is 1" larger. But... comparable 13" MBP Retina is NZ$2,300. It is smaller and heavier, with a bit slower CPU (i5)... but it should squeeze at least 1 more hour from the battery, and is using better integrated graphics (Intel Iris). My laptop requirements are quite relaxed - I'm not using my personal laptop for work, so I don't even require Office on it - Lightroom is the only real requirement, Photoshop to much lesser degree... better gaming capabilities would be nice, but I gave up on light and portable gaming laptop some time back, every single one had an issue (poor screen, bulky, crappy battery life even in non-gaming scenarios)... rest, any OS would do, and I'm curious to give OSX a go.
However, Gigabyte has just released P34G v2. This is 14" gaming laptop, only 100g heavier than 13" MBP, reasonably thin (21mm). Not as premium built as MBP or X1, of course, and screen in "only" 1080p... but screen is of good IPS variety, and Haswel i7 CPU, 8GB or more of RAM, backlit keyboard, 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD with GTX 860M are quite tempting. I don't know pricing yet, but I'm expecting it not to go over NZ$2,500 for described configuration.
So now, it is between MBP and P34G v2. What is better hardware here... for me? I have gaming desktop, so I don't really need gaming laptop... but whenever I go to lan party, or we organize little tournament in the office after hours or weekends, I wish I can just take my laptop, instead of moving my desktop rig. Outside of graphics, Gigabyte will offer faster CPU, more storage (without sacrificing performance)... MPB will offer more premium finish, still better screen, better battery life (though Gigabyte can sacrifice spinner HDD for larger battery which should at least match MBP). What is better here? Machine with stronger insides or machine with better outsides? Much as I am concerned, I'm finding both equally attractive.
No cut. They sell their subscription on their own site. So basically they're paying $99/y for their membership at Apple, and use their infrastructure, 700M clients and the humongous name of Apple. Don't know how they got these apps pass, but we'll see.
The previous article has more on the prices.
Edit: turns out Apple does get their cut.
Exactly. I would probably be willing to pay about £20 each for Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the iPad. No way am I going to subscribe to Office 365.
There are three application from MS. I would expect one would have to pay the $99.99 for only one application, and the license would apply to the other two. Right?
https://github.com/popcorn-team/popcorn-app/releases/tag/v0.2.7-beta
Pretty happy with iWork, so no need for me to swap horses. And I definitely do not want work remote anything on my personal devices, end story.
Written by yours truly, the one and only......
So you're DED?
/s
yours truly
Does anyone know if you can print from the iPad versions of the MS Office Apps??????
A link to the presentation would be great AI.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/mar14/03-27mobilecloudpr.aspx
I have to say that although I'm not a fan of this subscription model, the Apps do look very good.
I think the presentation overall was great - well done Microsoft!
Well, that's exactly like Excel 2010 on my Windows 7 machine at work. Four cores, only one being used - for *all* spreadsheets I have open and they are frequently all being recalculated every time a calculation changes in one of the sheets even if they are not linked in any way.
Minor gripe, though, since Excel is a really powerful albeit with many weird quirks. One gets used to it.
Ah. They fixed that in Excel 2012. On Windows 7, it's pretty impressive.
I prefer Parallels - seems to work a bit better especially for graphics - although I am using the latest version of Parallels compared to version 4 on my work machine - not sure if I want to pay for the upgrade myself or try to convince the company to cover it. For work I have a couple apps that are windows only so have to use it - for home I do a lot more in the VM so the extra power helps, even though it is marginal.
Thanks. I've not got anything against Parallels, but it's always good to see what someone who's used both thinks, in case I'm missing out on something!
AI please do a good comparison review especially with these things.
Although i am not surprised that Microsoft's offering is not even as advertised as their offering are rarely as advertised i would have thought they would have gotten some features right.
*snicker* The pictured propped-up iPads on the table look suspiciously like Microsoft Surfaces.