AppleOffice/iOffice/iWorks/whatever, won't see the light of day in my opinion. At least not for a while. Millions of people rely on Microsoft Office, and everyone uses the format. If Apple were to introduce their own Office suite tomorrow, MS would leave the Mac platform permanently, making the Mac a dinosaur once again.
I think the Office Pricecut might just prevent Apple from making an attempt at a suite. Apple wouldn't be able to do much better than $299 and Office is entrenched. However I think it's a little sophomoric to actually believe Microsoft would cancel Mac Development of Office. That's highly reactionary and would require time. Apple's Office suite would actually have to take marketshare for this to happen and we're talking possibly years here. Losing Office wouldn't affect Apple as much as pundits love to think. I know lots of Mac users and many...probably a majority don't own office or even a bootleg of it. This tells me that this "so called" indispensable app isn't quite living up to the hype.
Should Apple decide that they want to make a go at selling an Office Suite I would love to give it full consideration. I'm looking for a Suite that let's me get my work done as efficiently as possible. Filesharing of documents is a secondary consideration. YMMV however.
If Apple doesn't want to make a real office suite, they at least need to kill Appleworks. The app is a piece of crap, as we have gone over countless times here, that needs to shape up or ship out.
If Apple doesn't want to make a real office suite, they at least need to kill Appleworks. The app is a piece of crap, as we have gone over countless times here, that needs to shape up or ship out.
I think the Office Pricecut might just prevent Apple from making an attempt at a suite.
Just thought of something. What if Apple's next foray into Office software was a competitor to Microsoft PROJECT?
Perhaps Apple could back off the WP and Spreadsheet areas for awhile (because of the pricecut) but continue to build best-of-class productivity apps for the business market.
MS couldn't pull Office in protest, since Project isn't available for the Mac. But it would be one more area in which Apple reasserts itself.
Also, Jobs said Keynote was originally made just for his use. With the thousands of employees, multiple product lines and numerous deadlines Apple faces each day, I would expect they've written some killer Project Management software internally as well...
AppleOffice/iOffice/iWorks/whatever, won't see the light of day in my opinion. At least not for a while. Millions of people rely on Microsoft Office, and everyone uses the format.
Which is why the Apple office suite will use MS's formats, just as Keynote does.
Quote:
If Apple were to introduce their own Office suite tomorrow, MS would leave the Mac platform permanently, making the Mac a dinosaur once again.
Hmm, well maybe, but maybe not. Microsoft hasn't abandoned Powerpoint v.X now, has it?
The politics of the situation are complicated. I think Apple has a few cards in their hand to persuade MS to stay in the Mac platform.
I agree that I'm not sure whether Apple will compete head-to-head with MS Office with their suite -- at least right away. But they'll definitely release a consumer/education-friendly iWorks suite within the next year. This is not a market segment that's threatening to MS, and it's very important to Apple, for at least three reasons:
- For the consumer market, Apple's steady sweetheart.
- An iWorks suite, built in Cocoa, can be readily expanded into a full professional suite, if Office v.X is threatened or begins to pale in feature-parity to the Windows version.
- Software is pure profit for Apple; they love to do it, and it's an increasing percentage of their revenue.
While Keynote can sort of import and export PowerPoint, it doesn't really "use" that format. It has its own XML format.
Yeah, "use" was badly put. Of course Apple needs to have its own file format, in the event that Microsoft decides to alter the structure inside .ppt, .doc, or .xls. As it often does.
Just to mean to say that I think Apple understands that MS Office-compatibility is critical to having even a chance of succeeding.
If Apple comes out with a full featured office suite, MS WILL drop Office:X. I wish a court would come in and say "um, MS, you are bad, and your file formats will be 100% compatible FOREVER, and any updates to your formats must be released to developers X amount of time so that they may update their software."
Seems to me that the best solution is for Apple to just revamp, from the ground up, AppleWorks. Something cheap and fully functional for the basics. Perhaps code upon which a full featured office suite COULD be built quickly as a contingency, should MS drop Office:X for some reason.
Meanwhile, OpenOffice development is where it's at. Long way to go, for sure, but when the OS X port is aquafied, it will be a serious Office contender. And free. And MS can't blame/retaliate against Apple.
head over to thinksecret they seem to have news on filemaker 7. seems juicy.
Looks pretty interesting...what I think Apple should do is just let FileMaker 7 arrive, then just stick with that and Keynote.
They should then wait for MS to release the next ver of Office, and then, after taking extra time to work on and polish the app(s), then Apple can release a full office suite without having to worry about MS pulling it.
My bad. I just checked the Filemaker site and the Developers convention starts on the 24th, not the 20th as I originally posted.
I'm also beginning to like this idea of Apple pursuing a trio of business-friendly apps: Keynote (Presentations), Filemaker (Database) and Timeline (my name for new Project Management software)
It fills a need (maybe they could purchase Fastrack Schedule and integrate it with Mail, Address Book and iCal.) It also doesn't directly go after Redmond (not yet, at least.)
The arrival of the OpenOffice suite on the Mac has just been postponed to Q1 2006!
In terms of non-MS productivity software on the Mac, the situation seems to be getting bleaker each passing day.
I'm not suprised. Apple doesn't need OpenOffice. The originators of Appleworks nee Clarisworks work at Apple. Apple wooed them back from Gobe.
I would surmise that Apple is sitting on enough code that hasn't been used to whip up something that beats the stuffings out of OO.
The parallels here with the rumors of Apple using Mozilla for a browser. OO is bloated and needs work. Apple can probably take the core of AW and build on top of that into a new app filled with Cocoa goodness.
I say do it. The Office Suite has stagnated. It's Microsoft Office or nothing. Lets see what an Office Suite of the 21st Century looks like.
Like Browsers I think an OS Vendor should have it's own Office Suite that utilizes the best of what the OS has to offer. The Politics of this Industry should not interfere with forward progress.
Lets see what an Office Suite of the 21st Century looks like.
And that means using code as old as Apple itself. I had Claris 4 on my old Performa, there is very little difference between that and AW 6, presentation features, tweaks, version numbers. Compared to Office or anything that's useable. Any code worth using in AW is probably not worth saving as it probably would only make up like 5% of apps consisting of tens of thousands of lines of code. If Apple wasn't working on something else it would take months maybe weeks to recode AppleWorks in Cocoa.
And to the above quote, an Office Suite will look like Keynote with friends.
Comments
Originally posted by va1entino
AppleOffice/iOffice/iWorks/whatever, won't see the light of day in my opinion. At least not for a while. Millions of people rely on Microsoft Office, and everyone uses the format. If Apple were to introduce their own Office suite tomorrow, MS would leave the Mac platform permanently, making the Mac a dinosaur once again.
I think the Office Pricecut might just prevent Apple from making an attempt at a suite. Apple wouldn't be able to do much better than $299 and Office is entrenched. However I think it's a little sophomoric to actually believe Microsoft would cancel Mac Development of Office. That's highly reactionary and would require time. Apple's Office suite would actually have to take marketshare for this to happen and we're talking possibly years here. Losing Office wouldn't affect Apple as much as pundits love to think. I know lots of Mac users and many...probably a majority don't own office or even a bootleg of it. This tells me that this "so called" indispensable app isn't quite living up to the hype.
Should Apple decide that they want to make a go at selling an Office Suite I would love to give it full consideration. I'm looking for a Suite that let's me get my work done as efficiently as possible. Filesharing of documents is a secondary consideration. YMMV however.
Originally posted by CubeDude
If Apple doesn't want to make a real office suite, they at least need to kill Appleworks. The app is a piece of crap, as we have gone over countless times here, that needs to shape up or ship out.
No kidding! AppleWorks isn't even meant for OS X!
I think the Office Pricecut might just prevent Apple from making an attempt at a suite.
Just thought of something. What if Apple's next foray into Office software was a competitor to Microsoft PROJECT?
Perhaps Apple could back off the WP and Spreadsheet areas for awhile (because of the pricecut) but continue to build best-of-class productivity apps for the business market.
MS couldn't pull Office in protest, since Project isn't available for the Mac. But it would be one more area in which Apple reasserts itself.
Also, Jobs said Keynote was originally made just for his use. With the thousands of employees, multiple product lines and numerous deadlines Apple faces each day, I would expect they've written some killer Project Management software internally as well...
Originally posted by va1entino
AppleOffice/iOffice/iWorks/whatever, won't see the light of day in my opinion. At least not for a while. Millions of people rely on Microsoft Office, and everyone uses the format.
Which is why the Apple office suite will use MS's formats, just as Keynote does.
If Apple were to introduce their own Office suite tomorrow, MS would leave the Mac platform permanently, making the Mac a dinosaur once again.
Hmm, well maybe, but maybe not. Microsoft hasn't abandoned Powerpoint v.X now, has it?
The politics of the situation are complicated. I think Apple has a few cards in their hand to persuade MS to stay in the Mac platform.
I agree that I'm not sure whether Apple will compete head-to-head with MS Office with their suite -- at least right away. But they'll definitely release a consumer/education-friendly iWorks suite within the next year. This is not a market segment that's threatening to MS, and it's very important to Apple, for at least three reasons:
- For the consumer market, Apple's steady sweetheart.
- An iWorks suite, built in Cocoa, can be readily expanded into a full professional suite, if Office v.X is threatened or begins to pale in feature-parity to the Windows version.
- Software is pure profit for Apple; they love to do it, and it's an increasing percentage of their revenue.
Originally posted by Hobbes
Which is why the Apple office suite will use MS's formats, just as Keynote does.
While Keynote can sort of import and export PowerPoint, it doesn't really "use" that format. It has its own XML format.
Originally posted by JBL
While Keynote can sort of import and export PowerPoint, it doesn't really "use" that format. It has its own XML format.
Yeah, "use" was badly put. Of course Apple needs to have its own file format, in the event that Microsoft decides to alter the structure inside .ppt, .doc, or .xls. As it often does.
Just to mean to say that I think Apple understands that MS Office-compatibility is critical to having even a chance of succeeding.
Seems to me that the best solution is for Apple to just revamp, from the ground up, AppleWorks. Something cheap and fully functional for the basics. Perhaps code upon which a full featured office suite COULD be built quickly as a contingency, should MS drop Office:X for some reason.
Meanwhile, OpenOffice development is where it's at. Long way to go, for sure, but when the OS X port is aquafied, it will be a serious Office contender. And free. And MS can't blame/retaliate against Apple.
all i want is apple to give the word proceesing app the name Author and have a pic with a scroll and one of those ink pens.
and whose to say apple hasnt already built this i office app?
wasnt there something on the macnn front page a while ago on a team who was affiliated with apple on a word processing app.
Originally posted by Robby
head over to thinksecret they seem to have news on filemaker 7. seems juicy.
Looks pretty interesting...what I think Apple should do is just let FileMaker 7 arrive, then just stick with that and Keynote.
They should then wait for MS to release the next ver of Office, and then, after taking extra time to work on and polish the app(s), then Apple can release a full office suite without having to worry about MS pulling it.
Looks pretty interesting...what I think Apple should do is just let FileMaker 7 arrive, then just stick with that and Keynote.
Hmmmm a Database and Presentation package. Not exactly putting the "P" in Productivity.
Apple only need decide on if they can do a Suite better than what's available. If so then ship it and let the market decide. If not shelve it.
Any Suite shipped must have a bedrock of at least Spreadsheet and Word Processing.
I'm also beginning to like this idea of Apple pursuing a trio of business-friendly apps: Keynote (Presentations), Filemaker (Database) and Timeline (my name for new Project Management software)
It fills a need (maybe they could purchase Fastrack Schedule and integrate it with Mail, Address Book and iCal.) It also doesn't directly go after Redmond (not yet, at least.)
There are rumors of a new product coming this week.
Maybe we'll see Filemaker 7 at long last.
The arrival of the OpenOffice suite on the Mac has just been postponed to Q1 2006!
In terms of non-MS productivity software on the Mac, the situation seems to be getting bleaker each passing day.
Originally posted by Frank777
Well this isn't good.
The arrival of the OpenOffice suite on the Mac has just been postponed to Q1 2006!
In terms of non-MS productivity software on the Mac, the situation seems to be getting bleaker each passing day.
I'm not suprised. Apple doesn't need OpenOffice. The originators of Appleworks nee Clarisworks work at Apple. Apple wooed them back from Gobe.
I would surmise that Apple is sitting on enough code that hasn't been used to whip up something that beats the stuffings out of OO.
The parallels here with the rumors of Apple using Mozilla for a browser. OO is bloated and needs work. Apple can probably take the core of AW and build on top of that into a new app filled with Cocoa goodness.
I say do it. The Office Suite has stagnated. It's Microsoft Office or nothing. Lets see what an Office Suite of the 21st Century looks like.
Like Browsers I think an OS Vendor should have it's own Office Suite that utilizes the best of what the OS has to offer. The Politics of this Industry should not interfere with forward progress.
Apple can probably take the core of AW and build on top of that...
Oh heavens nooooo........
Lets see what an Office Suite of the 21st Century looks like.
And that means using code as old as Apple itself. I had Claris 4 on my old Performa, there is very little difference between that and AW 6, presentation features, tweaks, version numbers. Compared to Office or anything that's useable. Any code worth using in AW is probably not worth saving as it probably would only make up like 5% of apps consisting of tens of thousands of lines of code. If Apple wasn't working on something else it would take months maybe weeks to recode AppleWorks in Cocoa.
And to the above quote, an Office Suite will look like Keynote with friends.
Originally posted by Frank777
Well this is interesting.
Forgive my ignorance... Why is that interesting?