“Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday will deliver his first press presentation since taking the company reins,” Michael Endler writes for InformationWeek. “Officially, Microsoft has said only that the event will be “related to the intersection of cloud and mobile,” but a variety of sources have claimed, citing anonymous insiders, that a native version of Office for iPads will finally debut.”
“Microsoft’s greatest challenge isn’t making money, but rather positioning Office to be as dominant in today’s consumerized mobile landscape as it was during the PC’s heyday,” Endler writes. “What does Microsoft need to bring to the tablet to make Office for iPad a smash? Assuming the much-anticipated productivity suite appears this Thursday as expected, here are five things to watch.”
1. Will Office for iPad be more than an oversized version of Office Mobile?
2. Will Office for iPad be available without an Office 365 subscription?
3. Is it too late?
4. Will Office for iPads kill Windows tablets?
5. Is Satya Nadella asserting his authority as CEO?
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
1. If not, it’ll be DOA.
2. If not, it’ll be a niche app, not ubiquitous.
3. For many, yes. By now, a lot of people have woken up and realized that Office is not a requirement.
4. What’s there to kill?
5. Depends on the answers to questions 1 and 2, but doing something that obviously should have been done years ago is hardly revolutionary leadership.
Related articles:
Microsoft CEO Nadella expected to finally admit holding Office for iPad hostage a failed strategy – March 26, 2014
Microsoft Office on iPad: Too little too late? – March 23, 2014
iPad generation shuns Microsoft Office; one of Microsoft’s biggest squandered opportunities – March 14, 2014
Apple makes the world’s most advanced operating system freeware – October 23, 2013
Apple’s new free OS X for Mac hurts Microsoft and the Windows PC industry in myriad ways – October 22, 2013
Apple exploits Microsoft’s confused hesitation on Office for iPad – October 22, 2013
Apple’s OS X Mavericks available today free from the Mac App Store – October 22, 2013
Apple releases next-gen 64-bit iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS; free with new Macs and iOS devices – October 22, 2013
MDN Take: “doing something that obviously should have been done years ago is hardly revolutionary leadership.”
But for Microsoft, it’s a revolutionary concept.
I don’t need the Microsoft Office suite of apps, I have iWork, which works great for me!
I honestly expected question one to be, “Why?” It was mine. 🙂
Sixth Big Question: Who gives a flying fsck in a rolling doughnut?
If CEO Satya Nadella does introduce Office for iPad, it amounts to a tacit admission that past Microsoft voices dismissing iPad as “only for consumption, not creation” were misguided at best.
Their counter claim, that only their own Surface tablets allowed “real work to be done” will now have to be retired, surely to be replaced by a slogan like “the full Windows experience.”
They don’t seem to understand branding, except as something applied to the consumer’s flank in the cattle chute to a bleat of pain.
Country girl.
Growing up on a Virginia farm, I identified with Leslie Lynnton
“4. Will Office for iPads kill Windows tablets?”
Office didn’t help Surface tablets, nor will Office for iPads hurt the Surface. It will live or die based on their own merits.
Surface tablets kill themselves without much help.
I bet it comes with the universally acclaimed Metro user interface. MS Office Metro edition for iOS with extra ribbons charms buttons and bells.
“doing something that obviously should have been done years ago is hardly revolutionary leadership.”
It is at Microsoft.
Microsoft could survive with enlightened leadership and by doing what needs to be done now. It will take years, possibly more than a decade for Nadella to regain a strong stability and dominance in meaningful segments.
Unfortunately he will not last that long at the helm. The board of directors will loose patience quickly and seek a succession of tentative leaders.
Yep, I agree with some other commenters. My number one question is “who gives a rat’s ass?”
When I get my iPad I will never install Microsoft Office, even if free. I will buy Pages or wait for OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
Good news. When you get your new ipad iWork will be available to you free of charge.
Apple has already demonstrated how to build a suite of office apps for the mobile world. I realize some people will say that iWork is not as feature rich as Microsoft Office, but the way you interact with it on a mobile device is amazing. If Microsoft has not rethought how Office will work on mobile devices (Windows RT has shown that they haven’t), then this will not be successful. Apple completely reimagined iWork for iOS. I don’t think Microsoft has that capability.
MDN’s take is pretty spot on. Initially, I would’ve paid big bucks for MS Office on the iPad (easily $100 a year if it was decent).
Now, there are many MS Office compatible apps for iOS and I’m not sure Microsoft will make the best MS Office compatible app. However, if it does, I’d still be willing to pay a lot for it, but I don’t want a subscription. I also don’t want to be forced to use Sky One Live Drive or whatever the heck they’re calling their cloud service this month, so those two things could be deal killers.
I guess is that that indeed will be what happens. Microsoft will bundle iOS Office as a subscription with something like 5 devices (including notebooks/desktops) for $100 a year. Unless they also offer a purchase version of MS Office for notebooks/desktops, many of us will need to subscribe (eventually) and thus get it on iOS as well anyway.
Until tomorrow, I’m remaining optimistic. This is a great opportunity for Microsoft under new leadership to transform and become a company that offers value to people like me instead of being the company it has been (one that I wish would just stop and go away).
I have had the experince of trying to work on a common document between various versions of MS Office on desktops with Windows and iMacs–it is not pretty.
The name MS Office may be the same, but there are many features that don’t work well across versions and/or across platforms. MS Office for iPad will not be helpful to own because you don’t need it for small, routine tasks and it can’t be trusted for large ones.
As long as MS’s whole deal is to stick it to Apple by creating half ass products for Apple devices instead of giving ALL users best experience they can have, they will be shooting themselves in the foot.