5 Year Microsoft Deal and Leopard
Not sure if this is the right forum...
Was thinking that since a Mac version of Office is secured for the next 5 years, this opens the door for Leopard to begin to swallow/absorb Windows, either via dual-boot, fast-OS switching, or running Windows apps natively and M$ can't retaliate for years. Office is the only strong leverage M$ has on Apple anymore, isn't it?
I know it's early to begin the new round of specualtion, but my memory ain't what it used to be to hang on to this for too long...
Was thinking that since a Mac version of Office is secured for the next 5 years, this opens the door for Leopard to begin to swallow/absorb Windows, either via dual-boot, fast-OS switching, or running Windows apps natively and M$ can't retaliate for years. Office is the only strong leverage M$ has on Apple anymore, isn't it?
I know it's early to begin the new round of specualtion, but my memory ain't what it used to be to hang on to this for too long...
Comments
iWork 06 is proof part n parcel that Apple again is giving up on home grown tech to clear a path for Microsoft to your wallet.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Apple isn't swallowing anything that Microsoft isn't letting them.
iWork 06 is proof part n parcel that Apple again is giving up on home grown tech to clear a path for Microsoft to your wallet.
that is for now...but apple has bought themselves 5 years of RandD time while still allowing users to have a certin level of confidence in the presence of Office tools on the platform.
Apple may have been hand-cuffed this year, to get the deal, but I do not think they would take a deal that said that they could not continue with iwork, had they, there would be NO iWork 06. Apple has 5 years to build, test and mature something now, that time is a granted.
And who knows where Office will be in 5 years, with things like OOo and NeoOffice, all we need now would be an officialy sun-backed OOo/StarOffice port to OSX, which is a perfectly natural move with the ride of the x86 Apples...
With MS they do a very good job of getting clients entangled into their software paradigm.
Thus Office only becomes an extension of whole system which now includes collaboration tools, Groupware, Messaging, Virtualization, Database, Enterprise Storage and much more.
Apple isn't even close to putting a dent in this system. They've made their decision. They will craft out a niche in "creative" stuff and not attempt to make any inroads into the Enterprise.
Vista only makes things worse because there's so much of it that is deep in the OS requiring vendors to dedicate their products around Vista core functions just like Apple does.
Let's put it this way.
Microsoft has WAY more of a chance of breaking Apple's iPod/iTunes stranglehold than Apple has of breaking their domination of biz sector apps.
I bet iWork already exists in an expanded form.
When M$ invested in Apple in the 90s with non-voting shares, does anyone believe Office wasn't a part of the deal? Office continued to legitimize Macs when they were a tad less than computing beasts. But if Macs were to somehow begin to shift the balance against Windows somehow, why wouldn't Office be the ace in the pocket? So, until the game really heats up, Apple holds back on its Office trump.
...I don't even play cards, where did that come from...?
Originally posted by e1618978
What did Apple give in exchange for the deal? Postponed the spreadsheet?
The adoption of OpenDocument Format: ODF.