“No application, from Microsoft, has been more important for the Mac’s long-term survival than Microsoft Office,” Arik Hesseldahl writes for BusinessWeek.
“Office for the Mac continues to be the best-selling piece of Mac software that doesn’t come from Apple,” Hesseldahl writes. “So it was a tad surprising that Apple announced on Aug. 7 a new version of its own office productivity software, dubbed iWork ’08. Included in iWork, which will sell for $79, is a new application called Numbers, a spreadsheet application analogous to Microsoft Excel, but as with all things made for the Mac, Apple made it easier to use.”
“Previously, iWork had contained only Pages, a word-processing program comparable in many respects to Microsoft Word, and Keynote, a presentation program that is comparable to, but far better than PowerPoint… Adding Numbers completed the circle,” Hesseldahl writes.
“So, as of this week, Apple has its own office software suite that does more or less the same things, is compatible with Office, and sells for just a little more than half of Office’s starting price of $149,” Hesseldahl writes.
“Should Microsoft be worried? Certainly not yet. I checked with Chris Swenson, an analyst with NPD Group, a market research firm that tracks retail software sales. What effect if any, has there been on sales of Office for the Mac in reaction to Google, Zoho, and ThinkFree? ‘None. Zero. Zip,’ he said. Microsoft Office for the Mac enjoys a market share in the neighborhood of 97%, while its nearest competitor is Apple’s iWork, which comes in at 1.8%,” Hesseldahl writes.
In his full article, Hesseldahl explains why Apple bothers with iWork and explains why Microsoft bothers building Office for the Mac (hint: big profts) and wonders why, with Mac sales growth running well ahead (3X) of the rest of the PC industry, why is Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit down to producing one flagship application and just a few minor other apps?
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Many Mac users — the majority, we believe — think they need Office, but really don’t. Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and see for yourself.
The new version of iWorks seems nice so far. Been using it a day. As far as replacing MS Office, the tide will turn. It always does. No company can sustain dominance forever.
Yes, the grip of the “Microsoft mindshare” is beginning to slip, and Apple’s retail chain will be a huge factor in helping it. People will be able to get hands-on experience with the software and begin to wake up to the reality in front of them. The world is a new place, and Microsoft’s suite is no longer essential.
If you “need” Office, you’d be insane NOT to buy the Educational version for what, $129 or something else that’s way too much for that bloated turd.
OK, I will.
One only need Office to be compatible with the rest of the World. Sad but true.
Why or why can’t they include an equation editor!? I guess my pleas (via Feedback) have fallen on deaf ears. I would have thought with the expanded academic/science use of the Mac, this would have been a useful addition? The problem, I suppose, is making something as fantastic as Latex Apple-simple. Microsoft’s equation editor, simply, sucks. But I don’t think Apple would want people to remember all the specific commands that latex requires. Ah well, here’s hoping for iWork ’09
Is there a way to upload a Keynote into your .Mac account, so people can view your presentation, like you can upload your iphoto into gallery.
I have made some very nice presentations, but they can’t be viewed in PP
I think that would be a killer, send your people a link to your web based KeyNote presentation
Our company participates in the “Microsoft Home Use Program” in place and we can get Office (for Macs or PC’s) for a fulfillment fee of only 20 bucks. Its nice that I have this option at work but since iWork 08 is out now with Numbers, I can finally remove Office from my Mac.
There is an equation editor that ships with Appleworks. It can be run standalone and its output can be pasted right into Pages.
Get a 2nd hand copy of AW.
On second thought, I’ll get iWork instead.
Microsoft would just spend the money I send them on funding Astroturfers.
@hotinplaya…
can’t you just export them out of keynote to PPT format and let your friends view them that way?
As much as I would like to get rid of Office, students often are required to turn in assignments as Wurd docs. Sure, Pages can export as Wurd, but you never really know for sure if the export will be “perfect.” Alas, for college students, having Wurd is a near requirement.
With the well-received introduction of iWork 08 at Apple’s Town Hall, is there anyone STILL wondering why MSFT recently (read: suspiciouly) announced the delay of the new version of Office for the Mac until January, 2008?
eggZACKly
With Apple’s capital in the bank these days, I’m not sure why they don’t eat the cost of iWork ’08’s development and include the suite of three productivity apps with Leopard (when it arrives) and with all new Macs sold as of August 7. It would be savvy to include it with the machine just as they include the iLife suite, iTunes, iCal and all the other great apps which currently reside on new Macs.
Most average users like me would certainly be more inclined to “give it a shot” and see if it would handle our productivity needs before shelling out a couple hundred to purchase Office for Mac (which is currently outdated, delayed and much less user-friendly). I’m sure many Mac users would immediately be impressed with the usability of the iWork suite and say, “To heck with Microsoft Office, if these three apps will save to XLS, DOC and PPT formats then I’m set!”
@hotinplaya…
Save the Keynote presentation as a Quicktime movie.
Microsoft should be worried because there is zero chance that people like me will actually upgrade to the new ribbon-based version of MS Office.
Shy is dead right. As a teacher I quite often have to download class notes from our intranet in Word and Powerpoint and you just have to use Office for that guarantee of interoperability. At this stage there just isn’t a complete alternative. Sad but unfortunately true.
Thanks Hywel, Actually, I just found Grapher.app (Applications/Utilities) – that looks like it could work as well. Now, if only there was a way to quickly reference equations and figures from the text (again, a la latex’s /ref{}).
Cheers,
Numbers is a shot across the bow. Shipping iWork on Windows would be a tac nuke on a major city.
There’s no reason for Apple to leave the empire with either of their monopolies untouched. The world needs an alternative to MS Office, and OpenOffice isn’t it.
-jcr
Numbers is a shot across the bow. Shipping iWork on Windows would be a tac nuke on a major city.
There’s no reason for Apple to leave the empire with either of their monopolies untouched. The world needs an alternative to MS Office, and OpenOffice isn’t it.
-jcr
Numbers is a shot across the bow. Shipping iWork on Windows would be a tac nuke on a major city.
There’s no reason for Apple to leave the empire with either of their monopolies untouched. The world needs an alternative to MS Office, and OpenOffice isn’t it.
-jcr
Numbers is a shot across the bow. Shipping iWork on Windows would be a tac nuke on a major city.
There’s no reason for Apple to leave the empire with either of their monopolies untouched. The world needs an alternative to MS Office, and OpenOffice isn’t it.
-jcr
@shy
i always “strongly suggest” my students to turn in their documents to me in PDF, or RTF if it is simple text. or ‘strongly suggest’ open office or neo office. anything to wean them from MS.
Pages & Keynote keep getting better in an evolutionary sort of way. And I can’t fault them.
Numbers is an altogether stranger experience.
Unbelievably sophisticated in some areas, such as the ability to have multiple tables held in multiple worksheets (or what Excel users would recognise as being tabs), yet unfathomably incomplete in others such as no ability to use external data sources (even Filemaker) or even XML-based data.
Still, for a Version 1 and for a package that will still retail for less than £60.00 here in the UK, it’s a neat package.
Apple has always had a verson of Office. We called is Apple Works. Only iWorks is just done better or should I say the way it should of always been done.