It seem like Microsoft will eventually delivery deadly blows to many competitors. Office for iPad and free Windows will have a huge impact in the tech industry. Microsoft already provides great customer service where anybody can chat to a tech rep. http://po.st/jgBqK4
12M is huge. It's true that they are only 5th in top grossing but I think that the algorithm for grossing lags those for downloads. And remember - most of the downloads are people with existing subs or experimenting but enough people have signed up newly to the service to drive revenues to 5th so far. ( I imagine 1st eventually). Which is not nothing. It's new subscribers for MS and more money for both MS and Apple
It seem like Microsoft will eventually delivery deadly blows to many competitors. Office for iPad and free Windows will have a huge impact in the tech industry. Microsoft already provides great customer service where anybody can chat to a tech rep.
Calling it freemium makes it sound like all the apps pretending to be free and then charging to do anything useful.
wut?
This is exactly what is going on. The apps are free, but to do anything useful, you need to pay for the Office365 subscription. That is the definition of freemium.
... thus rendering the Surface even more pointless.
I'm an iPad owner and not once have I had an overwhelming urge to spin on a conference table or dance like a nazis school girl. Apparently the Surface has Powers the iPad lacks.
If Office 2011 is any indication of the quality of the webbversion for iOS it will be a catastrophy. Office 2011 so chockfull of bugs and after all these updates still no relief in sight. It's still beta...
This is all new from the ground up. If anything, I anticipate Office for Mac 2014 will pull heavily from these apps.
The point is not just how much money Apple is making on the software sales. The other major point is how many individuals and corporations will now buy a new iPad for sure rather then consider any alternative.
i tried out Excel, expecting the no edit to mean no editing of formulas, layout etc, but found you cannot even alter a cell value to change the result in other cells... Or to put it another way, Excel on an iPad as a free version is no more use than taking a spreadsheet on a desktop computer and saving the sheet as pdf and viewing it on your iPad.
I'm an iPad owner and not once have I had an overwhelming urge to spin on a conference table or dance like a nazis school girl. Apparently the Surface has Powers the iPad lacks.
I imagine that most are simply testing it but it's a strong start. I just hope this is the start of MS realizing it's a SW company. They started off strong by writing apps for Apple so I like that the past is repeating itself.
"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."
You nailed it. Microsoft should just stick to writing apps for Apple ... and give up on everything else.
Funny how here and all the tech sites there are people looking for any reason to try and spin this as a negative. There is no downside here - it's a big win for MS and Apple. And a huge gaping hole for Android, who doesn't have any productivity suite that's even half as good.
I bought Office 365 Home. $100 per year and I get it on 5 PC's. Everyone at home gets the extra 20GB OneDrive storage and you also get 60 minutes of Skype free every month. And on your PC you also get Publisher (so-so for me) and Access (big deal for me). $100 a year is a bargain for how much you actually get.
Microsoft is pushing the subscription model. And maybe they think they're giving less $$ to Apple than if it was a paid app on the AppStore. I know a number of people who said "no thanks" because they don't want to rent software. Or they use other cloud options at this point and don't want to be tied to OneDrive.
The fact is it has to be free. Office is primarily and enterprise product and paying for it yearly isn't anything new with 365. Eventually most of the people downloading and using this app won't be buying a personal subscription to 365 through the app. They will be activating the one they have from work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Creep
wut?
This is exactly what is going on. The apps are free, but to do anything useful, you need to pay for the Office365 subscription. That is the definition of freemium.
It's just a weird way of thinking about it. When I think of fermium apps I think of the ones that have swapped an initial price for buying the app to an in app purchase so it can be free in the app store.
In this case what you pay for isn't just an app, your paying for Office on Windows, Web, Mac, iPad plus a few other services. It's like having a magazine subscription to a printed magazine where they've also released an app that you can view the magazine on as well.
The majority of users of these apps also won't be buying a subscription through the iPad or specifically for an iPad. My parents got theirs when they bought an iMac. So to them it's just a free app.
Microsoft is pushing the subscription model. And maybe they think they're giving less $$ to Apple than if it was a paid app on the AppStore. I know a number of people who said "no thanks" because they don't want to rent software. Or they use other cloud options at this point and don't want to be tied to OneDrive.
They are giving less money to Apple -- its free. If you already have purchased the subscription model for your PC, or for work as an employee, or as university or college student/faculty/staff that has paid for an enterprise-wide license, then the iPad version will cost you nothing, and Apple will get nothing.
Comments
.... but, but, but nobody wants MS Office for their iPad.
Because Apple is making 30%. This is Appleinsider. It's all there for you but we can't do it for you.
It seem like Microsoft will eventually delivery deadly blows to many competitors. Office for iPad and free Windows will have a huge impact in the tech industry. Microsoft already provides great customer service where anybody can chat to a tech rep. http://po.st/jgBqK4
It seem like Microsoft will eventually delivery deadly blows to many competitors. Office for iPad and free Windows will have a huge impact in the tech industry. Microsoft already provides great customer service where anybody can chat to a tech rep.
Calling it freemium makes it sound like all the apps pretending to be free and then charging to do anything useful.
wut?
This is exactly what is going on. The apps are free, but to do anything useful, you need to pay for the Office365 subscription. That is the definition of freemium.
I'd say this is the software equivalent to "devices shipped" versus "devices sold".
I'm an iPad owner and not once have I had an overwhelming urge to spin on a conference table or dance like a nazis school girl. Apparently the Surface has Powers the iPad lacks.
This is all new from the ground up. If anything, I anticipate Office for Mac 2014 will pull heavily from these apps.
i tried out Excel, expecting the no edit to mean no editing of formulas, layout etc, but found you cannot even alter a cell value to change the result in other cells... Or to put it another way, Excel on an iPad as a free version is no more use than taking a spreadsheet on a desktop computer and saving the sheet as pdf and viewing it on your iPad.
You're holding it wrong.
You nailed it. Microsoft should just stick to writing apps for Apple ... and give up on everything else.
But how many of those are actually paying Microsoft to really use the apps vs. "just tryin' it out cause it's free"?
Presumably time will tell.
And just like me, 99.8% of those that downloaded the apps deleted them.
Why? So you can say you did cuz, you know, the man and stuff.....?
Funny how here and all the tech sites there are people looking for any reason to try and spin this as a negative. There is no downside here - it's a big win for MS and Apple. And a huge gaping hole for Android, who doesn't have any productivity suite that's even half as good.
I bought Office 365 Home. $100 per year and I get it on 5 PC's. Everyone at home gets the extra 20GB OneDrive storage and you also get 60 minutes of Skype free every month. And on your PC you also get Publisher (so-so for me) and Access (big deal for me). $100 a year is a bargain for how much you actually get.
Microsoft is pushing the subscription model. And maybe they think they're giving less $$ to Apple than if it was a paid app on the AppStore. I know a number of people who said "no thanks" because they don't want to rent software. Or they use other cloud options at this point and don't want to be tied to OneDrive.
The fact is it has to be free. Office is primarily and enterprise product and paying for it yearly isn't anything new with 365. Eventually most of the people downloading and using this app won't be buying a personal subscription to 365 through the app. They will be activating the one they have from work.
wut?
This is exactly what is going on. The apps are free, but to do anything useful, you need to pay for the Office365 subscription. That is the definition of freemium.
It's just a weird way of thinking about it. When I think of fermium apps I think of the ones that have swapped an initial price for buying the app to an in app purchase so it can be free in the app store.
In this case what you pay for isn't just an app, your paying for Office on Windows, Web, Mac, iPad plus a few other services. It's like having a magazine subscription to a printed magazine where they've also released an app that you can view the magazine on as well.
The majority of users of these apps also won't be buying a subscription through the iPad or specifically for an iPad. My parents got theirs when they bought an iMac. So to them it's just a free app.
Microsoft is pushing the subscription model. And maybe they think they're giving less $$ to Apple than if it was a paid app on the AppStore. I know a number of people who said "no thanks" because they don't want to rent software. Or they use other cloud options at this point and don't want to be tied to OneDrive.
They are giving less money to Apple -- its free. If you already have purchased the subscription model for your PC, or for work as an employee, or as university or college student/faculty/staff that has paid for an enterprise-wide license, then the iPad version will cost you nothing, and Apple will get nothing.
The apps should not be described as Freemium, any more than iBooks should be.