Microsoft's own Office apps much better on iPhone than Windows Phone 8
In keeping with the growing importance of Apple's iOS platform, Microsoft's new Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for iPhone are now far superior than those Microsoft offers for its own Windows Phone 8 platform.
Microsoft just released enhanced versions of its Office apps for iPhone (or iPod touch), using the same unified codebase as the company's tablet-optimized version for iPads, now allowing document creation and editing without a paid Office 365 subscription.
In March, when Microsoft initially released its iPad editions of Office, we noted that despite Android's reported 62 percent majority tablet market share in unit shipments, Microsoft decided to bring its Office apps to iPad first, even though iPads were only credited with about 36 percent global tablet share by market research firms.
Seven months later, Microsoft still hasn't released a tablet-optimized version of Office for Android. But even more though provokingly, Microsoft also hasn't bothered to update its own Windows Phone version of the apps, which Tom Warren of The Verge just referred to as "shit."
Warren also tweeted out a comparison photo of an iPhone 6 Plus and a Nokia-branded Windows Phone device each running Office, showing iOS presenting a superior interface and accurate document rendering, while the Windows Phone was just a big mess.
Microsoft is no doubt focusing on its next Office release for the upcoming Windows 10, but that isn't expected to be released for another year. Its tablet-optimized version of Office for Android is tentatively planned to ship in the first quarter of 2015, about one year after the iPad version.
That means Apple will sell at least another 70 million iPads before Microsoft has a mobile version of Office for its own platforms that isn't embarrassing. That won't do much to convince buyers over the next year to try out Windows Phone.
Meanwhile, figures from Good Technology show that Apple is cleaning up in the enterprise space, with iPads making up 90 percent of the new tablet activations it sees in use among its more than 5,000 client companies. Overall, iOS powered 67 percent of all mobile enterprise devices.
Microsoft faces stiff competition in the basic productivity apps market, ranging from a variety of specialized iOS offerings to web-based Google Docs and Apple's own iWork suite of Pages, Keynote and Numbers, apps the company now bundles for free on new iOS devices (and Macs).
Microsoft is now giving its iOS Office apps away for free use along with an option to unlock some additional features for paid subscribers, a sea change from just a decade ago when using Office involved a $500 per user license outside of educational or site license deals.
Not too long ago, the general perception was that Apple's sales of premium hardware would be impossible to sustain as commodity hardware makers shipped large volumes of low priced alternatives. Over the past year, Apple's iPads sales have beat the combined shipments of the rest of the top five tablet producers,while the company has seen significant growth in sales of iPhones and Macs.
Meanwhile, on the software side Microsoft must be feeling competitive pain to induce it to give away its mobile Office apps for iOS while also delivering its best versions of Office for iPhone and iPad.
Microsoft is also rumored to be preparing an update for its Mac Office suite next year, with a public beta planned for the first half of the year, followed by a full launch in the second half of 2015.
Recent leaks suggest the next version of Office for Mac will be revamped to take full advantage of high-resolution Retina Display Macs, and to get full feature parity with its Windows counterpart, including Excel features, easier sharing of files between platforms and enhanced integration with Office 365, SkyDrive and SharePoint.
Microsoft just released enhanced versions of its Office apps for iPhone (or iPod touch), using the same unified codebase as the company's tablet-optimized version for iPads, now allowing document creation and editing without a paid Office 365 subscription.
In March, when Microsoft initially released its iPad editions of Office, we noted that despite Android's reported 62 percent majority tablet market share in unit shipments, Microsoft decided to bring its Office apps to iPad first, even though iPads were only credited with about 36 percent global tablet share by market research firms.
Seven months later, Microsoft still hasn't released a tablet-optimized version of Office for Android. But even more though provokingly, Microsoft also hasn't bothered to update its own Windows Phone version of the apps, which Tom Warren of The Verge just referred to as "shit."
Warren also tweeted out a comparison photo of an iPhone 6 Plus and a Nokia-branded Windows Phone device each running Office, showing iOS presenting a superior interface and accurate document rendering, while the Windows Phone was just a big mess.
Here's Office for iPhone vs. Office for Windows Phone with the same document open. Guess which is better? iPhone pic.twitter.com/NfnCeIDipz
-- Tom Warren (@tomwarren) Microsoft is no doubt focusing on its next Office release for the upcoming Windows 10, but that isn't expected to be released for another year. Its tablet-optimized version of Office for Android is tentatively planned to ship in the first quarter of 2015, about one year after the iPad version.
That means Apple will sell at least another 70 million iPads before Microsoft has a mobile version of Office for its own platforms that isn't embarrassing. That won't do much to convince buyers over the next year to try out Windows Phone.
Meanwhile, figures from Good Technology show that Apple is cleaning up in the enterprise space, with iPads making up 90 percent of the new tablet activations it sees in use among its more than 5,000 client companies. Overall, iOS powered 67 percent of all mobile enterprise devices.
Microsoft faces stiff competition in the basic productivity apps market, ranging from a variety of specialized iOS offerings to web-based Google Docs and Apple's own iWork suite of Pages, Keynote and Numbers, apps the company now bundles for free on new iOS devices (and Macs).
Microsoft is now giving its iOS Office apps away for free use along with an option to unlock some additional features for paid subscribers, a sea change from just a decade ago when using Office involved a $500 per user license outside of educational or site license deals.
Not too long ago, the general perception was that Apple's sales of premium hardware would be impossible to sustain as commodity hardware makers shipped large volumes of low priced alternatives. Over the past year, Apple's iPads sales have beat the combined shipments of the rest of the top five tablet producers,while the company has seen significant growth in sales of iPhones and Macs.
Meanwhile, on the software side Microsoft must be feeling competitive pain to induce it to give away its mobile Office apps for iOS while also delivering its best versions of Office for iPhone and iPad.
Microsoft is also rumored to be preparing an update for its Mac Office suite next year, with a public beta planned for the first half of the year, followed by a full launch in the second half of 2015.
Recent leaks suggest the next version of Office for Mac will be revamped to take full advantage of high-resolution Retina Display Macs, and to get full feature parity with its Windows counterpart, including Excel features, easier sharing of files between platforms and enhanced integration with Office 365, SkyDrive and SharePoint.
Comments
It's notable that now that Office is free for the most part, they're preparing an Android version. Which will probably be iffy, despite Microsoft's considerable software talent(yes, it is considerable, superior to Apple's in some cases), due to the craptastic nature of the platform.
That being said, as far as tablets go, give me Office RT any day. [I]That[/I] is a full fledged mobile productivity suite, missing just a few small features(most notable are Excel macros).
The reason it doesn't today is because the apps were baked in the OS and not stand-alone which means they can't update them. And probably isn't worth updating them so close to the release of the next phone OS.
long term the state of iOS and WP will be similar to the one of the mac and PC. MS own platforms will get the updates before anybody and probably remain most capable. While MS is an open company (something apple should seek to emulate) and will offer its apps everywhere as it seeks to dominate the cloud world, don't expect the slight lag in windows for touch to persist. It is merely a result of the fact the iOS platform versions got started before the windows 8/phone platforms existed, thus they have about a year's lead.
I have a Lumia 1520 for sale since it's barely supported by Microsoft and the major devs don't make apps for it.
Funny to see that they are still selling it via their website for $199 (and that may very well be the carrier lock-in)
But MS is still selling Windows RT tablets on the same page as the Windows 8 tablet. Pretty sad, because both tablets look like they run the same software and MS has abandoned RT.
That's MS for you:
1) Abandonware
2) So big and bureaucratic that their software isn't very consumer friendly.
This just in:
MS seems to have discovered which mobile side its bread is buttered on...
(probably no film at 11)
MS should just become an iOS and OS X developer and give up wasting their money on all else.
The ghost of Ballmer dances on...
Funny to see that they are still selling it via their website for $199 (and that may very well be the carrier lock-in)
But MS is still selling Windows RT tablets on the same page as the Windows 8 tablet. Pretty sad, because both tablets look like they run the same software and MS has abandoned RT.
That's MS for you:
1) Abandonware
2) So big and bureaucratic that their software isn't very consumer friendly.
RT will receive support until January 2018, at the very least. It remains to be seen if they'll make Windows 10 for the RT based tablets, but Microsoft is still selling both the Surface RT, Surface 2, and the Lumia 2520.
It's a shame it didn't catch on, because with a little work it had the potential to be a great mobile OS.
Recent leaks suggest the next version of Office for Mac will be revamped to take full advantage of high-resolution Retina Display Macs, and to get full feature parity with its Windows counterpart, including Excel features, easier sharing of files between platforms and enhanced integration with Office 365, SkyDrive OneDrive and SharePoint.
Respectfully, correction made.
Respectfully, correction made.
Personally, I think SkyDrive was a much better name than OneDrive. I know they did it for branding consistency (though I'm not sure why, as we didn't change anything else to "One") but SkyDrive sounds more...cool.
MS should just become an iOS and OS X developer and give up wasting their money on all else.
Let's go one step further. Apple should buy up Microsoft stock, do a hostile takeover, keep what they want (maybe just Word and Excel but dump Powerpoint, Sharepoint, and all the other garbage), and shut down the rest. This would be payback for everything Steve's "friend" did to Apple. Microsoft's only selling point is Office, nothing else. Take Office out of Microsoft and there isn't much left.
Why would Apple want Office? So they could take over all of the government and enterprise systems. I don't believe government systems use Windows because they want to, they use Windows because it has Office and they're so entrenched with Office they don't know how to get away from it. Everything else they use from Microsoft could be handled by something else running linux or unix.
Personally, I think SkyDrive was a much better name than OneDrive. I know they did it for branding consistency (though I'm not sure why, as we didn't change anything else to "One") but SkyDrive sounds more...cool.
Yeah, I know what you're saying. SkyDrive sounded much much cooler.
Let's go one step further. Apple should buy up Microsoft stock, do a hostile takeover, keep what they want (maybe just Word and Excel but dump Powerpoint, Sharepoint, and all the other garbage), and shut down the rest. This would be payback for everything Steve's "friend" did to Apple. Microsoft's only selling point is Office, nothing else. Take Office out of Microsoft and there isn't much left.
Why would Apple want Office? So they could take over all of the government and enterprise systems. I don't believe government systems use Windows because they want to, they use Windows because it has Office and they're so entrenched with Office they don't know how to get away from it. Everything else they use from Microsoft could be handled by something else running linux or unix.
All ideas are welcome, right? You should buy a few shares of Apple stock and go to the shareholder meeting and make that proposal. I'd probably vote no with my 20 shares though.
Let's go one step further. Apple should buy up Microsoft stock, do a hostile takeover, keep what they want (maybe just Word and Excel but dump Powerpoint, Sharepoint, and all the other garbage), and shut down the rest. This would be payback for everything Steve's "friend" did to Apple. Microsoft's only selling point is Office, nothing else. Take Office out of Microsoft and there isn't much left.
Why would Apple want Office? So they could take over all of the government and enterprise systems. I don't believe government systems use Windows because they want to, they use Windows because it has Office and they're so entrenched with Office they don't know how to get away from it. Everything else they use from Microsoft could be handled by something else running linux or unix.
Microsoft is more than just Office. Azure, OneDrive, MSN, Xbox, all their other services, there is a lot to the company. Gotta get out of the thinking that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.
Who are people here more bullish on Microsoft or Google?
No choice "C", none of the above ?
Who are people here more bullish on Microsoft or Google?
More bullish on MS if Nadella is allowed to continue. I don't know if they'll ever be as important to consumers as they were, but they have a solid chance at transitioning to a powerful services and enterprise company, like IBM. Microsoft also has multiple revenue streams, whereas Google is still just an ad company.
I'd also add that Microsoft now owns what is currently the most popular video game around, Minecraft, which will introduce Microsoft to a whole generation of consumers they otherwise wouldn't have had (people under 12).
I like it, although a joint Apple / IBM take over of the carcass of Microsoft for the useful assets would seem appropriate. The IBM Swift team could take over all the corporate and institutional IT boneheads that can't think beyond their Microsoft Certification to justify their existence.