“Satya Nadella, who took over as Microsoft’s CEO less than two months ago, is expected to use his first press conference to talk about Apple,” Charles Cooper reports for CNET.
“Specifically, Nadella, hosting an event in San Francisco Thursday, may announce that Office 365 will be available on Apple’s iPad,” Cooper reports. “The decision to make Microsoft’s cash cow available on a product sold by one of its arch rivals not only breaks with a long Windows-centric history, it also sends a signal from the new boss that more big changes are in store.”
MacDailyNews Take: You know, it “breaks with a long Windows-centric history,” if you disregard the already-available Office for Mac, Office 365 for iPhone, and the inconvenient fact that Word and Excel debuted on the Mac many years before Windows (two years for Excel, four years for Word).
Cooper continues, “‘If nothing else, it would be an important statement that Microsoft is serious about offering its services on platforms other than Windows, even potentially at Windows’ expense,’ said Michael Silver, a research vice president with Gartner.”
MacDailyNews Take: Pfft. See above Take.
Cooper continues, “Office 365 offers different subscriptions at different prices for access to things like office applications and file storage and sharing. A subscription for users of Windows Surface tablet currently costs $99 dollars a year. ‘Anyone who thinks they’ll get Office for iPad for a few bucks from the App Store will be seriously disappointed,” Silver said. “Microsoft has been pretty clear that its strategy is all about Office 365. Office for iPhone and Android phones are only available to Office 365 subscribers, and Office for iPad is likely to follow suit.'”
MacDailyNews Take: If so, it’ll be a niche product used only by those companies which have stupidly shackled themselves to the bloated, overpriced Office on the desktop.
Cooper continues, “Given his background, Nadella understands how closely Microsoft’s future is tied to the success of its cloud platform. It also offers a handy answer to the questions about how Microsoft will find its future source [of] growth in a world where the glory days of Windows and PCs are far, far behind them.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s iWork simply works better across iPads, iPhones, Macs, and Web browsers.
Related articles:
Microsoft Office for iPad: 5 big questions – March 26, 2014
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
Microsoft is on the verge of reinventing the whole Office bag of hurt for the mobile space. It feels so good to be Microsoft-free.
Microsoft sucks! [drops mic and walks off stage]
This will NEVER be installed on my iPad. NEVER EVER EVER.
If Office is designed to work in concert with iPad, then Apple will align many of iWorks features to work directly with Office, negating the need to buy Office at all.
“Microsoft CEO Nadella to use his first press conference to talk a lot about Apple”.
Not only Nadella likes to talk about Apple but also social media and regular normal people are talking about Apple as well. Because iPhone changing the world since it released in 2007.
People are addicted to Apple as simple as that.
The new Microsoft, forever niche.
They had me at “subscription”.
not.
Can you imagine the first time Microsoft’s Cloud experiences a “blackout” similar to Google’s services? The downtime would be a PR nightmare for Redmond.
Also, will Microsoft have the legal right to snoop through consumers’s Office documents it suspects might contain company secrets? If that capability existed, then you can be sure the NSA will find a way to exploit it.
You raise a good point. Are the terms and agreement for Apple’s iCloud or Google Docs the same as the what has recently been learned about email? My thought is they might be different because, in some cases, you are paying for the service.
Yeah, me too. I am still rocking Microsoft Office 2011 on my Mac. “Pay once–use as long as possible without upgrading” is the model I prefer, at least for MS products. Not “pay every year in perpetuity.”
Subscription software generally appears to be unpopular, especially on mobile platforms. I can’t see how this strategy is going to work well for MS, especially in light of the several suitable Word alternatives for folks who don’t HAVE to use Word.
The more apps that run on iOS the better. A potential iPad customer can no longer use the excuse “it doesn’t run Office” any longer. This is a win-win-win for Apple, Microsoft and the consumer.
If these rubes at MS require a $99 subscription to run some version of Office on the iPad, then Office on the iPad is DOA. Hell, I can buy Office for Mac for $168 on Amazon and own the sucker forever.
The only usefulness of Office on an iPad will be to view Office docs easily and do some light editing/spreadsheet work. Any really intense word processing or spreadsheet work demands a keyboard, mouse, and big screen.
However, since Microsoft has never figured out how people use tablets, I’m absolutely sure they are going to f__k this up badly.
Even in a supposedly-forward-looking school system that’s been short-sightedly chained to Windopes and Office for way too many years, I’ve found it very possible to be MS-free and have survived quite pleasantly thank you. Subscription=FAIL. I’ve got iWork, really don’t need anything else.
Cooper Dooper!
Ya big lug.
I hate MS office – all of it. BUT… the dumbing down of Pages and Keynote to fit the ridiculous iOS format has driven me back to Office because I can no longer use Pages interactively with my employer’s (a university) Microsoft world. Damn Tim Cook. Damn, damn, damn!
The herd won’t like that honest comment.
Uhh did Miscreantsoft say something? Oh never mind iWork is perfectly fine.
I’m an avid iWork user, and use Pages for basically *everything* I do in school. But I must admit Microsoft Office on the iPad is a good thing. It solidifies iPad’s dominance in enterprise and education, at least.
Heck, I used Internet Explorer on my Macs for a long time. I didn’t care for Safari originally but eventually had to use it.
What did he knows about Apple
FYI PowerPoint by Forethought also debuted on Mac😎✌️— before M$😖 bought it…😏