“As Apple Computer introduced its own productivity software Tuesday, Microsoft reiterated its commitment to the Mac market and said sales of its Mac Office package are growing. Microsoft said it sold more copies of Office 2004 for the Mac in the first three months after its release than the company sold in the first six months of the prior version,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News.
“The news comes as Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced iWork, a package combining an updated version of Apple’s Keynote presentation software, along with Pages, a new word processing program,” Fried reports. “‘We have no plans to stop developing Office for Mac,’ Scott Erickson, group product manager for Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit, said in an interview ahead of the iWork introduction. He said development of the next version of Office for the Mac is well under way and that Microsoft is on track with its schedule, which calls for a new version every 18 to 24 months Office 2004 debuted in April last year,” Fried reports.
Full article here.
Makes sense. iWorks doesn’t have a spreadsheet. Office will still have a market.
VERY nice to hear.
Microsoft must die. They have nothing more to contribute to the world. Let Linux be the default OS for the world, let Mac OS X work upon it, and let Windows die its long-overdue death.
What else is M$ gonna do? Take their toys and go home?
I don’t believe that iWork is intended to be an ‘M$ Office-killer’ app. It’s a (much-needed) update to a ‘consumer-level’ app. Granted, it does come with Keynote 2, which is really nice, but I think that there are plenty of Mac users that will continue to use Office for the Mac.
With this newly updated app, however, I won’t be one of them.
Really, there’s nothing new in iWork from Microsoft’s point of view. In fact, if Apple discontinues AppleWorks (as it very likely will), then Apple customers lose: a spreadsheet, a database, a drawing program, and a painting program. Where are they likely to go to get them? iWork is a boost for Microsoft in two ways: it pushes business users toward Office for Mac and it gives MS something to copy (Pages and Keynote 2) for the next versions of Word and Powerpoint, two products that badlly need updating.
rorscharch.. quit it man..
Billy Boy did an interview with Gizmondo.. and it was great.. he actually said they make LOTS AND LOTS of money from Office2004 and wouldn’t be quitting the platform..
I mean.. he’s basically legitimizing the platform for developers saying.. Quit Mac OS X.. nah! We’re making too much money..
This is great…
Good stuff MS.. we’ll still buy your stuff if you keep improving it.. don’t shy away from *snicker competition..
Seriously.. I use MS office 2004 everyday.. love it
I’m surprised they didn’t include some kind of Filemaker lite (not to mention a spreadsheet of some kind). After the word processor, the database is my most-used AppleWorks module. However, I don’t think I would miss the Drawing and Painting modules any more than the late Communications module.
Still, I’m not complaining–obviously lots of room to grow here.
This is good news.
Right now Mac needs Office to help convince switchers while legitimizing the Mac platform (as Mike said).
And I find that I continue to use Excel quite a bit. Appleworks spreadsheets just don’t quite do it for me.
It also shows consumers that Apple is about choice and is not a closed system.
My fav M$ product is Excel. Originally released first- on the Mac (from what I’m told).
We use Excel all the time. Almost as much as Word, in my case even more. No spreadsheet means no buy since iWork wouldn’t let meWork.
This post is couresy of the magic word: made
How could I forget Entourage. A great email app for BUSINESSES.
Where Mail is just fine for the consumer
Microsoft knows what iWork is intended for …. A home based word processor and presentation program which if you have high school students you know these two programs are important for their education …. Microsoft Office will remain predominate in the business section.
It’s great that Apple has delivered a more powerful word processing suite than Apple Works at a very reasonable price.
Here’s what I’m wondering:
Are they going to continue to bundle Appleworks for free, but if you want iWorks you have to buy it ?
Or will this be a free bundled application ?
In other words, will it be like today’s Appleworks, or today’s Keynote ?
Entourage and Excel are great apps. I only use Word because I have to, although it performs OK. I’m glad to hear MS in continuing to develop on the Mac platform. I use both Entourage (on the Mac) and Outlook (on Windows), and both programs have unique strengths; I hope they will both inherit additional features and functionality and usability from each other.
I will simply have no use for Office once iWorks appears. I don’t use excel, occasionally use powerpoint, and don’t need Word to do more than it did 5 years ago. So once iWorks hit… goodbye MSWord and don’t let the door hit ya on the way out.
Word peaked with Word 5, small & fast, very fast.
Excel for the Mac is a much better app than Excel for Windows.
I haven’t used PowerPoint in years. There is nothing that PP (or Keynote does) that I can’t do better with InDesign & Acrobat.
iWork should include at least the current Drawing, Database, and Spreadsheet apps from the late Apple Works. That said as much as I despise the eveil empire I’ll still continue to use Office.
Excel sucks. If you don’t think so, it’s because there is no powerful alternative and you are used to it. I find it clunky, unattractive, a feature-whore and UI disaster: typical M$ bloatware in dire need of rationalization. We’re stuck with it. Office works. It’s just so unworthy.
why doesn’t iWorks Pages include functionality to produce web ‘pages’? considering the name of the product, it’s logical I would have thought?
Nice early review of iWork here:
http://reviews.zdnet.co.uk/software/productivity/0,39024195,39183777,00.htm
Thank goodness M$ is still committed to Office. This is the best outcome possible for Mac lovers. Office is still ESSENTIAL for most business users. This preserves the possibility of Apple gaining significant marketshare–Apple now has their best chance to do so in many years.
Go Apple!
I already placed the order for two copies of iWork ’05 (for myslef and my sister). Why, because I don’t use anything in the M$ Office other than Word (stopped using PP when Keynote surfaced).
So once iWork arrive at my door, so long M$, I can finally be M$ free…
But I do agree with Mac User in terms this being a highly strategic (sp?) move that Apple has made in quite a long time.
Go Apple!
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This post is brought to you by the Magic word ‘without’ — as in ‘without’ iWorks I would still be using microsolth wart.