Microsoft counters Apple's free iWork suite by bolstering its Office Web Apps

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 120
    I would really like to see the MS office monopoly fall. Hopefully iWork will continue to erode away horrible MS software.

    If iWork is so inferior to office where are the office ios apps? MS obviously doesn't want to port office to iOS as it would kill surface business. If office is so great why can't it sustain surface sales along with iOS versions? Could it also be that MS knows it couldn't compete on iOS with free iOS iWork apps? More evidence that MS doesn't know how to compete in free markets, it can only manage monopolies.
  • Reply 22 of 120

    Me too. M$ are between a rock and the hard place. iPad is killing them and surface in hardware.  Now iWorks is going to put the boot in.

     

    Adding to the crown jewels of Apple's business.  The ecosystem.

     

    Add in that OS X now costs nothing?  That's another layer of money that business now don't have to pay for.  (If only Apple would make their Mac hardware just that bit cheaper...they used to!!!)

     

    Lemon  Bon Bon.

  • Reply 23 of 120

    Business will just invest in one eco-system.  That works.

     

    Across iPhone.  iPad.  (There's 200 million in sales nearly next year, just there!)  That's some pressure from users to bring in their own kit!

     

    And there's the Mac.

     

    All of it.  iCloud.

     

    The App store.

     

    All of it.

     

    Just works.  All connected.  No extra training.  Simple.

     

    Whether you are on iPhone, iPad or Mac.  It just is the 'Mac' experience.

     

    All Apple have to do is keep going, keep piling the pressure on.

     

    Lemon Bon Bon.

  • Reply 24 of 120
    virtuavirtua Posts: 209member
    Would help if they had the latest version available for mac, I'm used to office but adapting to iWork quote well. Don't want both and ones free :)
  • Reply 25 of 120

    Add in a bigger iPhone...

     

    and a 13 incher iPad....

     

    AND A MORE AFFORDABLE iMAC for the LOVE OF GOD.

     

    Lemon Bon Bon.

  • Reply 26 of 120
    Free iWorks still beats $100 a year any day. I have the money but I just don't think I need a subscription to use what should be a core feature on any of their products running Windows.

    Free doesn't always mean better but in this case it's a "no-brainer" to go with the "FREE" iWorks Suite.
  • Reply 27 of 120
    patsupatsu Posts: 430member
    macapfel wrote: »
    In the light of the iWork disaster this looks good. I am using iWork since years as only Office suite. I don't think I want to go back to MS Office. I don't want to pay $100 per year. But Apple has to rectify what they have done with iWork, or I might jump ship in a year or so.

    Why is the new iWorks a disaster ? You can use the old apps. Downloading the new one doesn't overwrite the old apps.

    Meanwhile, the new apps all have better UI and will be at least as powerful as the old apps in 6 months. Plus collaborative editing and a web version on other platforms now. All for free.
  • Reply 28 of 120
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by patsu View Post





    Why is the new iWorks a disaster ? You can use the old apps. Downloading the new one doesn't overwrite the old apps.



    Meanwhile, the new apps all have better UI and will be at least as powerful as the old apps. Plus collaborative editing and a web version on other platforms. All for free.

    Knee jerk over reaction by some people.  A disaster would be the US dollar collapsing in the next 2-5 years...

     

    What Patsu said.

     

    Lemon Bon Bon.

  • Reply 29 of 120
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mstone View Post

     

    Semi-related: I can tell you one thing I wish Apple would copy from Microsoft's IE is the ability to right click on a table in the browser and export to Excel, or in Apple's case, Numbers. I absolutely love that feature as we use a lot of tabular data on the web and it is a super fast way to get it into a spreadsheet.


     

    While not as convenient as right-clicking, you can simply copy the table and then paste it into Numbers.

  • Reply 30 of 120
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pazuzu View Post





    Because Excel is leaps and bounds above Numbers? Please clarify.

    Your serious right, I'm sure Numbers is okay for the average consumer to do their home budget on but the second you require a scripting language to calculate the PnL from thousands of trades from different exchanges in which the source information comes from 15 different sources ranging from XML, comma separated files to password protected Oracle DB that are located on remote servers across the Atlantic, Number starts to look like a toy real fast, So please clarify what you mean.

  • Reply 31 of 120
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:



    Originally Posted by Lemon Bon Bon. View Post

     

    Knee jerk over reaction by some people.  A disaster would be the US dollar collapsing in the next 2-5 years...

     

    What Patsu said.

     

    Lemon Bon Bon.




    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Relic View Post

     

    Your serious right, I'm sure Numbers is okay for the average consumer to do their home budget on but the second you require a scripting language to calculate the PnL from thousands of trades from different exchanges in which the source information comes from 15 different sources ranging from XML, comma separated files to password protected Oracle DB that are located on remote servers across the Atlantic, Number starts to look like a toy real fast, So please clarify what you mean.


     

    The thing is - if Apple creates a productivity suite that makes ALL users happy, power users as well as the more casual user, the suite will end up like MS Office (and only power users will be truly happy). It will be better for the vast majority if iWorks never catches up with MS Office. The real power users should continue to use Office and the rest of us will gravitate towards our suite of preference. 

  • Reply 32 of 120
    imt1imt1 Posts: 87member

    Think of this as a preemptive move by Apple, sort of like what happened with Google Maps. Since Google wasn't updating the platform with features that they were doing for Android, Apple said we will go our own way, remove Maps and provide our own. That cuts into Google's revenue. Thus, Google had two choices, stay off the iOS platform, which provided  huge chunk of search revenue, or put out their own version of Maps that competes and provides features on parity.

     

    What everyone overlooks in the Apple "Map Debacle" is that its not about having their own or better mapping system, its leverage for Apple to ensure that users of their hardware, which is were the majority of their revenue comes from, has the best user experience. What did it cost Apple to release and provide their own mapping solution vs. the costs of consumers possibly jumping ship and going to Android to get features they wanted? 

     

    This is the same scenario. What does it cost Apple to develop software and give it away for free? Microsoft can't compete here since they are predominately a software company and that is their revenue stream. But, providing iwork apps for free cuts into MS revenue stream of Office. I believe what Apple wants is MS to release office apps for iOS. They don't have to be free but Apple know that users want that as well and MS is holding out. 

     

    By applying the pressure of both increased iPad sales, which further erode PC sales and places to run Office, and giving away their own productivity apps, which will reduce reliance on Office, they are pushing MS into releasing MS Office apps on the iPad. This would be a huge win for Apple and will escalate hardware sales. I see this happening if Surface 2 doesn't come back with good number by holiday time.  

  • Reply 33 of 120
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Pujones1 View Post



    Free iWorks still beats $100 a year any day. I have the money but I just don't think I need a subscription to use what should be a core feature on any of their products running Windows.



    Free doesn't always mean better but in this case it's a "no-brainer" to go with the "FREE" iWorks Suite.

    Um Microsoft Office is free to use online as well, all you need to do is sign up to SkyDrive. What you are referring to is Office 365. Please do a simple Google or Bing search before posting false info. People might take what you posted as fact and miss out on a pretty decent FREE service from Microsoft, it's a no-brainer.

  • Reply 34 of 120
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MikeJones View Post

     

    You need a Surface to run Office 365?


    This isn't Office 365, do you guys just read the headlines and then just assume.

     

    Go here -> https://login.live.com get a free account and start using it. 

  • Reply 35 of 120
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Relic View Post

     

    This isn't Office 365, do you guys just read the headlines and then just assume.

     

    Go here -> https://login.live.com get a free account and start using it. 


    Sure, it's Office 365. It's a post from the "Office 365 Technology" blog. Maybe you should have read the blog post rather than making assumptions about what I did and did not read? Even if it wasn't Office 365 (which is honestly irrelevant to my question), I see no answer to what exactly about these Web Apps requires a Surface tablet which was the entire point of my question.

  • Reply 36 of 120
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MikeJones View Post

     

    Sure, it's Office 365. It's a post from the "Office 365 Technology" blog. Maybe you should have read the blog post rather than making assumptions about what I did and did not read?


     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MikeJones View Post

     

    Sure, it's Office 365. It's a post from the "Office 365 Technology" blog. Maybe you should have read the blog post rather than making assumptions about what I did and did not read?


    The Office part of 365 part is free, has always been but they don't call it Office 365 when in Skydrive just Office. This is a free service available to anyone, all you need is a SkyDrive account.

  • Reply 37 of 120
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Relic View Post

     

     

    The Office part of 365 part is free, has always been but they don't call it Office 365 when in Skydrive just Office. This is a free service available to anyone, all you need is a SkyDrive account.


    Great, so why does it require a Surface tablet? You know, my actual question rather than this irrelevant nitpicking over whether it's Office 365 or not.

  • Reply 38 of 120
    Knowing how slowly Microsoft responds to the competition, I doubt these new features were a response to making iWork free a few weeks ago. Microsoft isn't that nimble. But writers are always trying to create a narrative.
  • Reply 39 of 120
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MikeJones View Post

     

    Great, so why does it require a Surface tablet?


     

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MikeJones View Post

     

    Great, so why does it require a Surface tablet?


    Huh? It doesn't! Just go check it out for yourself real quick, it takes 2 minutes to get in and start using instead of posting questions here if it's available or not. It's actually a very useful app, I have been using it for a year and this update is really nice.

  • Reply 40 of 120
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mjtomlin View Post

     

     

    Disaster? Rectify?

     

     

    So you've been using iWork for years? Why can't you simply continue to use iWork '09 as you were? Then when the latest version regains all the features you hold so near and dear, you can make the switch.

     

    I don't believe Apple has screwed anyone over or did anything wrong. It's their software, if they feel the need to rewrite it from the ground up so they can gain cross platform compatibility then they should do just that. In the long run this makes much more sense.


    Zactly. Well said!

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