Microsoft's Commitment
Quote:
Originally posted by icfireball
Speaking of Roz Ho, I'm sure she is plenty smart, but seriously, she is the WORST public speaker. I don't see why the make her go on stage every Keynote; It's just depressing.
Originally posted by icfireball
Speaking of Roz Ho, I'm sure she is plenty smart, but seriously, she is the WORST public speaker. I don't see why the make her go on stage every Keynote; It's just depressing.
And I really don't see the point of her coming out this keynote. She had nothing interesting to say. All she said was about their comitment to Mac and how they would be updating to universal binary. But thats retarded beacuse any responsible company that large should update to universal binary by that time anyways. And as far as their comitment to mac, they are dropping programs left and right (IE, WMP, etc). Albiet those products suck anyways, and there is an actualy use/need for office...that dosn't show much comitment to me. And what is 5 years? Are they going to develop Office untill the Mac starts gaining leverage against windows and then fly the coupe???
Personaly, this is why I think Apple is even developing iWork. As a worst case senario. If MS decides to cut office for Mac, Apple pumps it up with full compatibility and full feature set. Right now they can afford a leasurley pace (hense the absences of key programs like an Excel like program, or database program, or REAL word processor) in developing, because they don't really need to make profits; they just want to get their product implanted incase of emergency.
Comments
Originally posted by icfireball
And I really don't see the point of her coming out this keynote. She had nothing interesting to say. All she said was about their comitment to Mac and how they would be updating to universal binary. But thats retarded beacuse any responsible company that large should update to universal binary by that time anyways. And as far as their comitment to mac, they are dropping programs left and right (IE, WMP, etc). Albiet those products suck anyways, and there is an actualy use/need for office...that dosn't show much comitment to me. And what is 5 years? Are they going to develop Office untill the Mac starts gaining leverage against windows and then fly the coupe???
Personaly, this is why I think Apple is even developing iWork. As a worst case senario. If MS decides to cut office for Mac, Apple pumps it up with full compatibility and full feature set. Right now they can afford a leasurley pace (hense the absences of key programs like an Excel like program, or database program, or REAL word processor) in developing, because they don't really need to make profits; they just want to get their product implanted incase of emergency.
The fact that she was there is important. The fact that she said something was gravy.
I believe the reason for the 5 year agreement is that Apple probably agreed to provide MS with an early heads up on future developments. MS was caught with their pants down when the Intel announcement was made and they have a LOT of work to do on both Office ad VPC. Both are profitable (the primary criteria) and both are important to Apple & MS. Having Office on Macs is a good way to avoid more legal problems for MS.
While I expected Numbers (and a database) in iWork 06 I don't think the lack of this area of improvement was due to the MS agreement. Rather I believe that Apple assigned a lot of iWork programmers to iLife - the 06 version is a huge upgrade and is critical for giving a demo to PC users considering a switch to Macs. Add in Front Row and there has been a lot of consumer level programming going on in 2005 - iWork just didn't justify major resources in comparison.
I think FileMaker is another reason for delays in a major upgrade. FileMaker is the obvious guess for the iWork database app - an "express" version that would basically be an add for users to go to the full version. FileMaker also had a lot on their plate, especially with the Intel announcement, and the iWork app simply had a lower priority.
iWork 07 is therefore the critical release for Apple. Numbers & a database, plus the templates and wizards from AppleWorks. This should be the sleeper announcement during the Keynote at MWSF 2007.