“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.
Man I HATE Office… I have to use that piece of crap at work and it sucks SO bad… I’d rather use TextEdit all the time than the clunky, nonintuitive Word. Total crap.
I have a question…
Does anyone know how to change the Dictionary or Language in Pages? In Word, you just change the Language, and the Auto Correction changes to the Language assigned…
I cannot seem to see where it is, but this morning, I was typing in French on Word, and Copy/Pasted the Text in French in Pages, and it seemed to have understood that it needed to switch to French…
However, I restarted the application, and typed in French on Pages, and it did not understand that it was French, and kept underlining everything, like there were errors.
Can anyone help, please?
Me wonders if the trial for Microsoft Office is on the new iMac? I bet it isn’t.
Why not just go with NeoOffice for free?
Let’s see- the last time I used a Microsoft Office app was, hmmm. Can’t remember. Haven’t needed any of ’em at all for at least ten years. I was kind of a fan of Word 5.1a, though.
Although I’m certain the Pages will be a more than adequate replacement for Microsoft Word, I understand that Pages cannot format a document written in Japanese in vertical format (縦書き) or incorporate furigana.
Having two different spreadsheets on the same page is a feature which I found bloody useful. But I’m still shaky on it because it’s too new…
But I feel the zen coming out of numbers, with the lack of restriction unlike excel.
Maybe I’m claustrophobic … but I feel theres air-circulation in spreadsheets now.
@shy
it is sad to say that this is true, but it should also be pointed out that if your professors can’t handle a PDF, or in fact prefer that format, for digital copies, they shouldn’t be teaching.
….that would clean up higher education a bit.
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luckily as a philosopher, i am in the only department that prefers Macs outside of the art department.
@ ポール
Go to the Text icon in the inspestor “T” and choose the “more” tab. There you will find the language option.
You know, it’s pretty true that people think they need office “just in case”, but the funny thing for me is that I’ve had word documents that would crash Word 2004 on my MBP, however Pages would open them with little or no effort.
to hotinplaya
You asked “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.”.
Yes– just save it as a Quicktime movie.
The author asks:
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.
Hard to judge iWork ’08’s effect when it’s only been out 24 hours, don’t you think? This is how the iPod got started. Just wait. iWork ’08 is WAY better than iWork ’07!
I know this sounds crazy and I am sure the halo effect strategy advocates would never allow this to happen… but, what if? what if they ported iWork to PC? Probably not too difficult. LOL. But, alas, probably never will happen.
@Walter
You don’t get a “guarantee” of document compatibility between Office for Mac and the Windows versions. In fact, it’s public information that there are some document incompatibilities between the two. How do you know that compatibility between Apple’s Pages and Windows Office isn’t just as good? Just because MS uses the same name (“Office”) to refer to these two applications doesn’t mean a darn thing. Until there is an independent look, this is all about perception and marketing.
I don’t see a particular reason quite yet to bump up to iWork 08. I barely use my NeoOffice applications so I don’t know that I need to drop another $80 (bought iLife) for this. Maybe in a month or two, but right now I’m ok. I have used the trial though and it is a pretty bad ass program that can seriously handle everything I need it to do.
I am happy that Apple has created the overall suite though. They’ve made a very effective, lower cost alternative to MS Office that takes up far less space and just looks better anyway. It’s neat to be around in the midst of the changes in the marketplace and actually understand what’s going on. Glad I bought my first Mac in November!!!!
I would usually use a PDF when I used Pages for classwork. Frankly though, when it comes to writing research papers for school I found MS Word much easier to manipulate. Perhaps it was just my needs or the fact I have been a Word user since 1997.
In three or four years with continued enhancements Apple very well could release the iWork program as a Productivity Suite for Windows. Numbers is the most exciting part of the release I think. The way to create the charts/page layouts etc. is FAR more impressive than anything MicroSoft has offered yet.
Keynote is a MAJOR thorn in MicroSoft’s backside.
Pages though, Frankly isn’t there yet. It seems to me Pages needs to become more like Word, and what is called Pages right now needs to be renamed “Poster” or something like that, a Mac alternative to Publisher.
The biggest thing I miss on my Mac is Publisher & Access. I know I could get File Maker, but it’s soo expensive.
MW: Believe, as in, I believe MicroSoft is crumbling, quickly or MicroSoft will be depending on a $150 million dollar investment from APPLE to prop them up…
If only steve were that kind to grant that…
in my Astrophysics department… the majority are using Macs.. i feel like home there
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Wow this article is an example of too much Kool Aid does to one’s brain. MS always said they would drop Mac office at some non-disclosed time. Apple is not going to wait for the situation to become one that will hurt Mac sales. Look how M$ is already giving BS excuses for delaying Mac Office ’08. M$ fired the shot over a year ago. Apple is just getting ready to take those sales from M$ too.
Just my $0.02
or, if you’re going to type in a different language, enable French (or whatever) as an input language. System Prefs > International > Input Menu > enable yr language. It would behoove you to check off “show input menu in menu bar,” for this will give you a national flag on the right end of the menu bar, so that when you need to switch to French input, you can select the French flag.
@sd
I read somewhere that Pages supports LateX code. Make a search, maybe you’ll find something helpful for your needs…
IT
I love Pages. I use it every time I can. But I’m the only Mac user in my company (lucky guy). So I need Word, because Pages export into .doc is far too poor. I hope they soon comply with the ODF. That will be the end of Office…
@Jake,
Nothing is perfect but as I posted the other day I tried:
iWork – too many page formatting problems from Word
Mellel – great for converting from Word, not the other way round
NeoOffice – too slow for large documents and presentations
Keynote – page formatting problems from Powerpoint , ditto for some graphs which just came out as unreadable gibberish.
In the end I reluctantly had to get a copy of Office for Mac 2004 (or whatever it’s called). And when I got this G5 iMac I methodically trashed every piece of Microsoft software (including my copy of Halo). I just love having Office bloatware. Not!
However when you’re dealing with large documents and presentations of up to several hundred pages you really don’t have much of a choice. There is no option for downloading the notes in PDF format. I just have to use Office.
When I create the work myself I use Mellel, Pages and Keynote. NeoOffice still irks me a little (like the print function…shudder).
I believe that the nail to the proverbial coffin to the MS Office dominance would be to include some version of FileMaker. With FileMaker, it will complete the iWork package. FileMaker is so easy to use–much easier than Access.
FileMaker is already compatible with the windoze world. Apple just needs to add this similar to what they did for Numbers.
KeyNote help
Thanks for the help folks,
I like most switchers are not computer savy, but I am doing things on my Mac, I would never have tried on a PC
I’ve been using NeoOffice for it’s compatibility with MS Office file formats. I like how it is free. Once Apple merges the FileMakerPro app into iWork with tight integration with iLife multimedia and other iWork apps then there’s incentive (for me) to buy it.
“to hotinplaya
You asked “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.”.
Yes– just save it as a Quicktime movie.”
What do you do if you want give a presentation to a group of people and you want to use the cursor???
Let’s say that I’m in Seattle and I want to give a Keynote presentation to a person in Miami. The Miami person can log into my .Mac account at the same time as I do and we can talk about the presentation over the phone, but I cannot use the cursor to explain any details on each slide. How do I do that???
Yes, I know I could use iChat, however most of our clients use PC!
I would appreciate any hints – thanks.
Bo