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Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

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Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#71

Post by raquo »

zapzupnz wrote: post #61
npunt wrote: post #56

Big move. I see this potentially as groundwork for the eventual integration of Mac and iOS App Stores, which you have to imagine is something Apple wants in the years ahead as platforms converge on common software stack and UX. It's also a signal that the App Store team may now be willing to do the deals necessary to attract MacOS apps back toward this larger strategic initiative (vs just trying to maximize revenue).…

> which you have to imagine is something Apple wants in the years ahead as platforms converge on common software stack and UX I don't think we have to imagine that. Apple's been against that sort of thing for a long time, and I don't see that changing any time soon. They don't target the lowest common denominator. I suppose that the Marzipan project, of iOS frameworks on macOS, should prove me wrong but I still don't…

> They don't target the lowest common denominator.

Maybe not _technically_ yet, but certainly in spirit. For example, Apple removed a lot of features from their Photos (formerly iPhoto) and iMovie Mac apps to match the much more limited iOS versions.

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#72

Post by npunt »

raquo wrote: post #71
zapzupnz wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which you have to imagine is something Apple wants in the years ahead as platforms converge on common software stack and UX I don't think we have to imagine that. Apple's been against that sort of thing for a long time, and I don't see that changing any time soon. They don't target the lowest common denominator. I suppose that the Marzipan project, of iOS frameworks on macOS, should prove me wrong but I still don't…

> They don't target the lowest common denominator. Maybe not _technically_ yet, but certainly in spirit. For example, Apple removed a lot of features from their Photos (formerly iPhoto) and iMovie Mac apps to match the much more limited iOS versions.

They did an entire rewrite of iPhoto -> Photos, and slowly added features back. They did this same with the iWork suite and Final Cut Pro as well. It's not unique to iOS.

iPhoto may be remembered fondly but it really needed a UX and technical overhaul to handle the order of magnitude increase in photos and videos people were taking.

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#73

Post by r0fl »

freehunter wrote: post #4
ghshephard wrote: post #2

The million (10 million? 100 Million) dollar question that I haven't seen addressed yet (but I'm sure will be, if it hasn't already) - is what % cut Apple is getting from the subscription revenue.

Does Apple let developers negotiate their fee? I thought it was a flat 30% for the first year and 15% after that?

Microsoft isn’t just another developer

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#74

Post by thought_alarm »

judge2020 wrote: post #59
thought_alarm wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to purchase a subscription, but you can cancel at any time. If you purchase an in-app subscription through the App Store with your Apple ID, the only option is a yearly subscription. If you purchase a subscription directly from Microsoft's website, you can purchase either a yearly or monthly subscription. The yearly subscription costs the same in both cases, and is cheaper unless you only want to use the app…

> The yearly subscription costs the same in both cases, Is this through in-app purchases? It would seem counterintuitive to let Apple take 30% from the yearly subscription if they've gotten away with distributing outside the app store for so long. (but they may have a special revenue share agreement)

That's how it has always been. If a company acquires a new subscription through the App Store then Apple processes the subscription and takes 30% the first year and 15% of each subsequent year. Apple doesn't claim any percentage of subscriptions acquired outside of the App Store.

If Microsoft acquires a new user and subscription through the App Store then Apple is entitled to their cut. If Microsoft acquires a new subscription organically outside of the App Store then Apple is obviously not entitled to a cut.

If Microsoft doesn't want the ability to acquire new subscriptions through the App Store (and pay Apple for it) then that's their prerogative, but right now that's not the case.

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#75

Post by acranox »

nicky0 wrote: post #38
killion wrote: post #26

I'm wondering if it's worth uninstalling Office and reinstalling. If it uses the App Store update mechanism instead of Microsoft Autoupdate I would prefer it. Autoupdate presents a window almost every time a launch an Office application.

And half the time Autoupdate just wants to update itself!

I went so long between using Word that auto update couldn’t update itself anymore. I guess the old version wasn’t compatible with whatever happened in the last year. So I had to go manually download an update package for the AutoUpdater so that I could find out there wasn’t any updates for Word. Awesome.

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#76

Post by ixxivvix »

walterbell wrote: post #18

Can you pay to use the app for only one or two months? Or does it requiring subscribing and cancelling?

You have to subscribe and then unsubscribe manually. Apparently the Mac App Store version only offers yearly subscriptions, but the iOS version still offers monthly options so you can use your phone if you personally don’t want to pay through Microsoft’s store

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#77

Post by reaperducer »

rpeden wrote: post #13
Tomte wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desktop Office. Microsoft has been offering a "real office" on Mac for many, many years now. The news is not that Office is on Mac, it's that it is distributed through the App Store.

There were even Mac versions of Word and Excel years before either of them were available for Windows.

A saw a woman from Microsoft’s MAC Business Unit give a presentation where she stated that most new Office features appear in the Mac version first as a test bed before they’re rolled out to Athens Windows side.

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#78

Post by wp381640 »

taftster wrote: post #68
mark_l_watson wrote: post #60

There are some services that are so worth the money that I am happy to pay for: Office 365, Dropbox, and GSuite. I am as much of a cheapskate as the next guy, but it makes sense to pay for services that help get work done and/or make life easier. I am curious if Microsoft is paying Apple a 30% cut, or if they got a better deal.

How many licenses of GSuite to you maintain? One license, $5 / month. Seems reasonable. I have six family members. $360 / year for GSuite, that's untenable to me.

I paid $400+ a year for personal accounts since GSuite went premium. I just switched over to another provider because I reached a tipping point of not being able to tolerate GSuite support - it is horrible. horrible. horrible. horrible. Took 1+ and 3+ weeks to resolve the only two minor issues we've ever had.

Support replies were a series of unrelated prefilled replies, it seems whoever is on the other end is just keen to reply with whatever asap (phone is no better)

I don't think i've ever given Microsoft a dollar in my life but i'm strongly considering purchasing their email hosting based on feedback from companies I know using it. I don't mind paying for things, I hate paying for things and then not getting what was advertised.

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#79

Post by ld00d »

killion wrote: post #26

I'm wondering if it's worth uninstalling Office and reinstalling. If it uses the App Store update mechanism instead of Microsoft Autoupdate I would prefer it. Autoupdate presents a window almost every time a launch an Office application.

My favorite is when autoupdate is done updating, it runs a check to see if anything needs to be updated, and then it reports to me that there's nothing to update.

Re: Office 365 is now on Mac App Store

#80

Post by saagarjha »

zapzupnz wrote: post #61
npunt wrote: post #56

Big move. I see this potentially as groundwork for the eventual integration of Mac and iOS App Stores, which you have to imagine is something Apple wants in the years ahead as platforms converge on common software stack and UX. It's also a signal that the App Store team may now be willing to do the deals necessary to attract MacOS apps back toward this larger strategic initiative (vs just trying to maximize revenue).…

> which you have to imagine is something Apple wants in the years ahead as platforms converge on common software stack and UX I don't think we have to imagine that. Apple's been against that sort of thing for a long time, and I don't see that changing any time soon. They don't target the lowest common denominator. I suppose that the Marzipan project, of iOS frameworks on macOS, should prove me wrong but I still don't…

> you can mix and match views and controllers from AppKit and UIKit

Last I heard, Marzipan apps cannot link against AppKit at all.

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