Why did Microsoft port Office to Apple's iOS iPad before Android?

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  • Reply 161 of 236
    djsherly wrote: »
    Have you seen the guy? He'd have trouble punching out a bundy clock.

    Ooooh! Ooooh!
    Wait, I've got this one
    Hater, right?
  • Reply 162 of 236

    because Microsoft has a track record of making poor decisions?

  • Reply 163 of 236
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,455member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Constable Odo View Post

     

    None of this pro-Apple talk makes any sense.  Almost no sane investor on Wall Street would bet on on Apple's survival against Google and Android.  Most are sure that Apple will only continue dropping from the 2012 starting point of its infamous death spiral.  Apple is still being valued for zero growth and even Microsoft is seen as having better growth prospects than Apple.  Microsoft is probably just making a mistake betting on Apple's iPad or simply had too much money invested already to kill the project.  Google and Android's market share completely obliterate every other computing platform on the planet.  The general consensus is that without Steve Jobs running Apple, the company will not be successful at any venture.  It just seems so obvious that most industry leaders are certain Apple will fail.  As it is, Microsoft's offering MS Office for iPad has increased Microsoft's value, but on Apple it has had the opposite effect.  Most analysts disregard Apple having any hooks into the Enterprise at all.  Most companies with strong positions in the Enterprise are not considered doomed companies.  Apple is, so any Enterprise presence Apple has must be rather minor.  All this boasting about Apple's strength in the post-PC era and it appears to me that Apple has been hit the hardest of all tech companies in terms of value.  Apple appears to be struggling merely to hold its ground.  Watch how Apple blows another financial quarter while Tim Cook proudly smiles.


    For the record, there is this stylist tool for for writers called paragraphs that makes writing more readable. Most of us that made it through the school system are aware of it.

     

    I like how you worked "Enterprise" in your writing ODO, but wouldn't the "Defiant" be more appropriate for "Deep Space Nine"?

  • Reply 164 of 236
    emesemes Posts: 239member

    Why? Because screw Google, that's why.

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Owen Iverson View Post

     

    because Microsoft has a track record of making poor decisions?




    If you read through the article, the author highlights the many reasons that it's a good decision.

  • Reply 165 of 236
    jungmark wrote: »
    Pretty sure this is an editorial and not news.

    News / truth is where you find it.

    In 1973, the "Lincoln Journal" became the first of many newspapers to move the strip to the editorial page to avoid conflicts between "Doonesbury's" avid fans and equally avid detractors. In 1975 the comic strip received a Pulitzer Prize... for editorial cartooning. Over the years, a number of newspapers have declined to publish certain of Trudeau's strips. Yet, the largely liberal Trudeau has received kudos from unlikely sources, including President Gerald Ford who said "There are only three major vehicles to keep us informed as to what is going on in Washington: the electronic media, the print media, and 'Doonesbury' - not necessarily in that order."

    http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/Origins-and-History-of-the-American-Comic-Strip-217724.html
  • Reply 166 of 236
    droidftw wrote: »
    The one on Android certainly is 27MB.  The rest of your post would certainly explain why I found the Android version to be underwhelming and said that Android already has much better options while you felt the need to jump in and defend MS Office.

    As an aside, DED once claimed that Excel isn't capable of doing basic addition correctly.  Make sure to double check your figures when using it!  :lol:  
    You mentioned there are better alternatives several times but haven't provided us with examples. This is the third time I've asked you to specifically mention which offerings on Android are "superior" (your description). They might be better than Office Movile but I guarantee you they won't be anywhere near as good as Office for iPad. And that's all that really matters.


    BTW, MS answered my question about the names. Office 365 Hone Premium has been renamed to Office 365 Home. They are the same package, and once you subscribe you can send an e-mail to 4 additional family members and the each get their own 20GB upgrade and access to all Office features on PC, Mac and mobile.

    MS also mentioned there are a few bugs in the registration process that they are aware of and are dealing with. Perhaps too many people trying at once? So for the people who tried the free mobile and couldn't get it to work you might want to try again later.
  • Reply 167 of 236
    It should be against the law not to give your money to Apple.
  • Reply 168 of 236
    With this release Microsoft has made iOS tablets the exclusive purveyor of the touch version of mobile Office, not just in respect to Android tablets, but to every other tablet including Microsoft's.

    Why did Microsoft port it's first fully touchscreen-friendly version of a nearly full-featured Office to iPads, even before it was available on its own Surface -- and Windows 8 OEM -- tablets?

    My guess is that this public gesture is intended to quell opposition within Microsoft to having different Office controls on desktops (keyboard and mouse) and mobile (fingers). A signal that it's time to stop the infighting and buckle down to preparing an Office version for Microsoft that is competitive with Office on iOS.

    Microsoft is truly in new hands, and abandoning "Windows Everywhere."
  • Reply 169 of 236
    ws11ws11 Posts: 159member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post

     

     

    It's also quite a bit slower than the iPad (Air). And as a Windows machine, it's only average for performance and only suited to simpler tasks. And touch optimized Apps are scarce, making its use as a tablet, well, useless.


    Quite a bit slower? That's a silly (and false) claim.  Bay Trail (4C 4T) is does very well with Windows 8.1, a system that can actually utilize the processing power Bay Trail has to offer.  As a media or web browsing device the T100 is very snappy loading webpages and is even capable of playing 4k video with no issues (these tasks are no problem in the touch interface). The moment you step into productivity applications of the device, the T100 wins by default, as the iPad cannot run a competing application or offer hardware compatibility the T100 can.  If by "simpler tasks" you're referencing to an assembly with under 1000 parts in AutoDesk Inventor, then I agree, the Bay Trail SoC is not a replacement or an equal to a modern U series Core i5 (Cherry Trail or Broxton on the other-hand might be).  Performance is expected to increase further with a spring update to Windows 8.1. This update will free up additional RAM (as low as 1GB will be the new requirement) and further optimize the OS for tablet SoCs. 

     

    As a small aside, there are many software solutions for Windows tablets that make utilizing legacy software even easier.  A couple of examples include an on screen multi touch pad for controlling the mouse pointer, or for gaming, on screen touch controls that can be customized and mapped for different games.

  • Reply 170 of 236
    ws11ws11 Posts: 159member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    Okay, I was making a joke based on the posters, but now I’m actually mocking that claim by saying HONESTLY?!


    Of course, the T100 runs x86 Windows 8.1.  

  • Reply 171 of 236
    ws11 wrote: »
    Quite a bit slower? That's a silly (and false) claim.  Bay Trail (4C 4T) is does very well with Windows 8.1, a system that can actually utilize the processing power Bay Trail has to offer.  As a media or web browsing device the T100 is very snappy loading webpages and is even capable of playing 4k video with no issues (these tasks are no problem in the touch interface). The moment you step into productivity applications of the device, the T100 wins by default, as the iPad cannot run a competing application or offer hardware compatibility the T100 can.  If by "simpler tasks" you're referencing to an assembly with under 1000 parts in AutoDesk Inventor, then I agree, the Bay Trail SoC is not a replacement or an equal to a modern U series Core i5 (Cherry Trail or Broxton on the other-hand might be).  Performance is expected to increase further with a spring update to Windows 8.1. This update will free up additional RAM (as low as 1GB will be the new requirement) and further optimize the OS for tablet SoCs. 

    As a small aside, there are many software solutions for Windows tablets that make utilizing legacy software even easier.  A couple of examples include an on screen multi touch pad for controlling the mouse pointer, or for gaming, on screen touch controls that can be customized and mapped for different games.
    Anandtech lists all the T100 benchmark results in the iPad Air review. It's quite embarrassing how badly the Air beats the T100.

    I'll trust those results before you saying things like "the T100 is very snappy".
  • Reply 172 of 236
    gatorguy wrote: »
    No, you're wrong: Not 'any' product. 

    Only those that are somehow -- even if they're only tangentially -- related to Google. 

    Really? That's all you could find to say? I would have expected you to add something of value to the discussion instead of dropping by just to be snippy. You and I used to have fairly respectful discussions here. I learned a few things from you, consider you one of the more educated members. Sad that it seems it's no longer worth your effort to be civil.

    Hoping maybe I'm wrong and you've just had a rough week.

    I've had an excellent week, thank you.

    I was only pointing out that pretty much all of your posts are pro-Google and/or in defense of Android. That is simply an empirical fact. It's totally fine for you to be that way, but to me, that's a one-note Johnny, and tiresome/boring. Moreover, it's weird that, for someone who constantly posts in a major pro-Apple forum, your posts are almost never pro-Apple.

    As to your question about not having a discussion, yes, I used to engage with you. But not anymore. I find your fairly regular MO of changing the premise of a question or thought and and then attempting to reframe it around your version of it, to be quite annoying. (That's not just me saying it: Numerous people have pointed that out over the past many months.). In fairness, you have not done it in this thread (so far).

    The purpose of this reply is just answer your question. I have no interest in continuing this further. :-)
  • Reply 173 of 236
    ws11ws11 Posts: 159member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post





    Anandtech lists all the T100 benchmark results in the iPad Air review. It's quite embarrassing how badly the Air beats the T100.



    I'll trust those results before you saying things like "the T100 is very snappy".

    Embarrassing?  In Kraken, the (pre-production) T100 falls right between two A7 devices by negligible amounts.  Meanwhile the iPad 4 which had a pretty good browsing experience has a considerable gap from the 3 devices.  In these types of tests, the WiFi connection is more likely the bottleneck on real world performance.

     

    Mozilla Kraken Benchmark (Stock Browser)

     

    Not to mention the T100's browser will always load a desktop version of a website with all features and plug-ins enabled.

     

    There is definitely a boost in real world applications, the T100, isn't even being fully utilized in some of these benchmarks,

     

    Example: Kraken with multitasking (barely an increase in time):

     

    Multitasking: Kraken + YouTube HD Playback 

  • Reply 174 of 236
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    ws11 wrote: »
    Embarrassing?  In Kraken, the (pre-production) T100 falls right between two A7 devices by negligible amounts.  Meanwhile the iPad 4 which had a pretty good browsing experience has a considerable gap from the 3 devices.  In these types of tests, the WiFi connection is more likely the bottleneck on real world performance.

    [image]

    Not to mention the T100's browser will always load a desktop version of a website with all features and plug-ins enabled.

    There is definitely a boost in real world applications, the T100, isn't even being fully utilized in some of these benchmarks,

    Example: Kraken with multitasking (barely an increase in time):

    [image]

    1) I wouldn't use the word embarrassing — as Asus does tend to make good products and does seem to care about display quality and battery life, unlike most of their WinPC competitor — but it's certainly not complementary when compared to the "toy" known as the iPad.

    2) You say it's a negligible amount but it's not. Especially when you consider the differences in the OSes. The only benchmarks it seems to best the iPad Air is in triangles per second, which were significantly reduced over the iPad 4 due to a GPU change, but when you consider the iPad has a 2056x1536 display and the Transformer T100 has an 1336x768 display and you compare it to the iPad 4's you see that between the two they cut a lot of corners to get their price point.

    3) This might be nice in regards to netbook-class machines but it's still a slow Atom processor running Windows on a 10" display. It's hard to imagine this affecting even one iPad sale.
  • Reply 175 of 236
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,650member
    Moreover, it's weird that, for someone who constantly posts in a major pro-Apple forum, your posts are almost never pro-Apple.

    I make pro-Apple posts much more often than anti-Apple ones. There's several examples in this thread alone if you take the time to actually read them, but that I can't help you with. My guess if it has much less to do with Apple and more to do with my not being anti-Google enough for your tastes.
  • Reply 176 of 236
    ws11 wrote: »
    Embarrassing?  In Kraken, the (pre-production) T100 falls right between two A7 devices by negligible amounts.  Meanwhile the iPad 4 which had a pretty good browsing experience has a considerable gap from the 3 devices.  In these types of tests, the WiFi connection is more likely the bottleneck on real world performance.

    59432.png

    Not to mention the T100's browser will always load a desktop version of a website with all features and plug-ins enabled.

    There is definitely a boost in real world applications, the T100, isn't even being fully utilized in some of these benchmarks,

    Example: Kraken with multitasking (barely an increase in time):

    59078.png 

    So you searched through the 20 benchmarks to find one where they were close? Figures.

    The A7 is only dual core (where the Bay Trail in the T100 is quad core). The Air's A7 runs at 1.4GHZ while the Bay Trail in the T100 is anywhere from 1.33-1.86GHz (jumping often to 1.86GHz when running benchmarks or more demanding tasks). I'd say it's very embarrassing to have a quad core processor running at a significantly higher clock speed from the king of processor design (Intel) that can't even outperform a dual core processor from Apple.

    There's a saying (incorrect saying, but that's for another time to discuss) that goes like this: "Google is getting better at what Apple does faster than Apple is getting better at what Google does."

    I'd say these are a better examples:

    "Apple is increasing ARM processor performance faster than Intel is making x86 efficient for mobile."

    or

    "Apple is increasing ARM processor performance faster than Intel is increasing x86 performance."
  • Reply 177 of 236
    With this release Microsoft has made iOS tablets the exclusive purveyor of the touch version of mobile Office, not just in respect to Android tablets, but to every other tablet including Microsoft's.

    Why did Microsoft port it's first fully touchscreen-friendly version of a nearly full-featured Office to iPads, even before it was available on its own Surface -- and Windows 8 OEM -- tablets?

    My guess is that this public gesture is intended to quell opposition within Microsoft to having different Office controls on desktops (keyboard and mouse) and mobile (fingers). A signal that it's time to stop the infighting and buckle down to preparing an Office version for Microsoft that is competitive with Office on iOS.

    Microsoft is truly in new hands, and abandoning "Windows Everywhere."

    Best post in this thread!

    For the past few years I have managed to remove Microsoft from all our Macs (7 in the household). This effort has been somewhat undermined by relatives giving [old, mostly worthless, underpowered] bring-me-down PCs to the grandkids ... I do all the IT in the household, and refuse to support the PCs -- It's up to the relatives to provide that.

    I signed up for a free trial of Office 365 so I can evaluate the new iPad apps. So far they look pretty good!

    I do have problems with some word docs (based on the supplied samples) with text selection:
    • a single tap selects the entire paragraph
    • I can extend the selection with the handles, but I cannot make it smaller
    • I cannot position the cursor between letters of a word
    • I cannot select a single word

    Also, I cannot change the font or font size/style on these paragraph selections

    What I would really like to see is someone (preferably AI) do an unbiased, concise (non editorial) comparison of the new MS Apps for iPad vs iWork vs Google Docs.

    So far, I get the Impression that the new new MS iPad apps are nice but have little advantage (other than the MS name) over their corresponding iWork apps ...

    For example, Apple recently removed Bezier Shapes from OSX Pages and Categories from OSX Numbers to bring feature parity among iOS, OSX and iCloud.

    As it turns out, MS has removed similar function from their new iPad apps.
  • Reply 178 of 236
    ws11ws11 Posts: 159member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    1) I wouldn't use the word embarrassing — as Asus does tend to make good products and does seem to care about display quality and battery life, unlike most of their WinPC competitor — but it's certainly not complementary when compared to the "toy" known as the iPad.



    2) You say it's a negligible amount but it's not. Especially when you consider the differences in the OSes. The only benchmarks it seems to best the iPad Air is in triangles per second, which were significantly reduced over the iPad 4 due to a GPU change, but when you consider the iPad has a 2056x1536 display and the Transformer T100 has an 1336x768 display and you compare it to the iPad 4's you see that between the two they cut a lot of corners to get their price point.



    3) This might be nice in regards to netbook-class machines but it's still a slow Atom processor running Windows on a 10" display. It's hard to imagine this affecting even one iPad sale.

     

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by EricTheHalfBee View Post





    So you searched through the 20 benchmarks to find one where they were close? Figures.



    The A7 is only dual core (where the Bay Trail in the T100 is quad core). The Air's A7 runs at 1.4GHZ while the Bay Trail in the T100 is anywhere from 1.33-1.86GHz (jumping often to 1.86GHz when running benchmarks or more demanding tasks). I'd say it's very embarrassing to have a quad core processor running at a significantly higher clock speed from the king of processor design (Intel) that can't even outperform a dual core processor from Apple.



    There's a saying (incorrect saying, but that's for another time to discuss) that goes like this: "Google is getting better at what Apple does faster than Apple is getting better at what Google does."



    I'd say these are a better examples:



    "Apple is increasing ARM processor performance faster than Intel is making x86 efficient for mobile."



    or



    "Apple is increasing ARM processor performance faster than Intel is increasing x86 performance."

     

    I'm talking about web browsing experience in the benchmarks and real world applications.  

     

    The majority of those benchmarks carry no weight for the T100.  For example the graphical benchmark focuses on OpenGL ES 2.0 performance, meanwhile the T100 can run software that utilizes DirectX 11, OpenGL ES 3.1, or OpenGL 4.x.  It can play games like Left 4 Dead 2 or Resident Evil 5.  On the T100 you can run Netflix on one half of the screen and an HD Youtube video on the other half.  Again, it can also utilize full CAD applications like Inventor.  All of these things are not possible on the iPad.

     

    Real world performance and applications >> benchmarks

  • Reply 179 of 236
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I've had an excellent week, thank you.

    I was only pointing out that pretty much all of your posts are pro-Google and/or in defense of Android. That is simply an empirical fact. It's totally fine for you to be that way, but to me, that's a one-note Johnny, and tiresome/boring. Moreover, it's weird that, for someone who constantly posts in a major pro-Apple forum, your posts are almost never pro-Apple.

    As to your question about not having a discussion, yes, I used to engage with you. But not anymore. I find your fairly regular MO of changing the premise of a question or thought and and then attempting to reframe it around your version of it, to be quite annoying. (That's not just me saying it: Numerous people have pointed that out over the past many months.). In fairness, you have not done it in this thread (so far).

    The purpose of this reply is just answer your question. I have no interest in continuing this further. :-)

    They are not all pro-Google and certainly no more than most of us here who are pro-Apple. Like most of us he's made both negative and positive comments about Google, Apple and numerous other companies. Even if GatorGuy leans toward Google and away from Apple which makes one wonder why he posts on a site called AppleInsider I'd take his contributions over ??????'s comments any day. Even if you or I don't agree with GG's positions he definitely states and cites his arguments well which, to me, makes his commentary worth reading.
  • Reply 180 of 236
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,650member
    What I would really like to see is someone (preferably AI) do an unbiased, concise (non editorial) comparison of the new MS Apps for iPad vs iWork vs Google Docs.
    http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/first-look-office-ipad-mixed-bag-good-first-step-239277
    http://www.cnet.com/news/office-iwork-google-docs-and-openoffice-productivity-suite-comparison/
    http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/review-microsoft-office-365-vs-google-apps-233667?page=0,7&source=fssr

    Based on their previous effort I wouldn't have high hopes for for a more fair and factual comparison here at AI but I'm willing to be surprised.
    http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/11/23/ios-productivity-showdown-apple-iwork-vs-microsoft-office-365-vs-google-docs
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