Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#21

Post by bornhuetter » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:06 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #15

bornhuetter wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one of the reasons why companies love them. People subscribe for a few months, stop using it as much but forget or don't bother to unsubscribe. The entire gym industry is based on this principle.

OTOH, companies love to buy them too. A predictable monthly cost that can be budgeted, that is directly tied to the number of employees? Yes, please. Doesn't make as much sense for consumers, but Office 365 isn't aimed at them.

Yes, that is true. Although Microsoft are trying to get consumers on to Office 365 too - they got rid of their 3 computer home license to push the Office 365 home package which runs on 5 devices. Personally I don't think that's a great idea - I think too many people are going to think about the cost of a subscription and decide it's not worth it. Buying a license as a one off cost with your new computer is easier to swallow imo.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#22

Post by bornhuetter » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:11 PM UTC

outside1234 wrote: post #17

Microsoft is opening up - Linux VMs, SDKs for Android / iOS, Office everywhere. The religion has been cast off (finally) at Microsoft and its going where the developers and users are.

I'd love it if that were true, but I'm not sure how much has really changed.

They have always allowed Windows to run in a VM on Linux - it's just the special free VM packages that didn't run on Linux before.

They have also always had Office on Mac - it's the best way to make sure no other office suite can get off the ground, and makes Office documents more industry standard.

If they were to release Office for Linux, then that would be something.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#23

Post by emehrkay » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:12 PM UTC

Is Apple setting up iWork for iCloud (very Microsoft-y naming here) subscription based or free if you happen to have an iCloud account? I ask because these two applications/SOCs would be direct competitors with MS having the advantage

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#24

Post by smackfu » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:17 PM UTC

bornhuetter wrote: post #21

smackfu wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, companies love to buy them too. A predictable monthly cost that can be budgeted, that is directly tied to the number of employees? Yes, please. Doesn't make as much sense for consumers, but Office 365 isn't aimed at them.

Yes, that is true. Although Microsoft are trying to get consumers on to Office 365 too - they got rid of their 3 computer home license to push the Office 365 home package which runs on 5 devices. Personally I don't think that's a great idea - I think too many people are going to think about the cost of a subscription and decide it's not worth it. Buying a license as a one off cost with your new computer is easier to…

Yeah, I was surprised how reasonable the Home family pack was last time I went shopping. Not sure of the price, but it was definitely under $200 for 3 installs. Now they want $100 a year for 365. You get more for the money (Mac support, 5 installs, Access) but it will definitely end up costing a lot more money.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#25

Post by Terretta » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:18 PM UTC

emehrkay wrote: post #23

Is Apple setting up iWork for iCloud (very Microsoft-y naming here) subscription based or free if you happen to have an iCloud account? I ask because these two applications/SOCs would be direct competitors with MS having the advantage

iWork applications and apps are paid but dirt cheap, cloud sync is free for first 5GB storage. Pages handles MS Word formats well, even full "track changes" interop from iPad, so you can round trip office docs from a train.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#26

Post by Terretta » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:21 PM UTC

marban wrote: post #16

Does anyone have any insights on who really uses these kinds of apps on their phone (and how)? Whether it's MSO, iWork or GDocs I can't find any productive use for them other than a quick lookup. Even editing a simple 10 page document is just a huge pain and there's really no piece of mind that it'll look good on a desktop device.

I regularly round trip proposals and contracts using Pages on the iPad (with a Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover).

It's not a huge pain, it's straightforward; and you can render to PDF as well if you're concerned about appearance.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#27

Post by jmspring » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:22 PM UTC

Hell freezes over? The trade press has mentioned this was in the works for awhile.

Microsoft actually makes some decent iOS apps. A company of 100k will have different groups with different beliefs/approaches. It's like the thread earlier this week about a particular person's experience with the group he was in after 8mo.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#28

Post by joelhaasnoot » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:23 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #13

nwh wrote: post #6

I struggle with the move towards everything being subscription based. Very quickly it becomes difficult to quantify just how much it is costing to own, and maintain ownership of a license for a piece of software. If I see an application that is $50, I can quickly quantify that into hours I need to work for this to be paid off. I can compare the value I am getting to the amount of currency that I expend on it. I know…

It really depends on what the prices are. With your example, it's obviously a bad deal. But in this case, Office 365 is $150 a year ($12.50 per month), while the packaged version of Office Professional is $400. So you get a good 2.5 years of use out of it before the curves cross.

I'm still running Office 2007. Bought it for $50 as a student and it's still fine.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#29

Post by k-mcgrady » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:23 PM UTC

bornhuetter wrote: post #10

If only Microsoft released Office for Linux and Apple let OSX run (in a VM or otherwise) on non-Apple hardware the world would be a much better place.

If Apple let OS X run on other hardware the OS would suffer with them having to spend time supporting so many different configurations. If they didn't their reputation would suffer.

Microsoft building Office for Linux would be a complete waste of time and money. The majority of Linux users would complain that it was expensive, closed source, and continue using the free, open alternatives.

Re: Microsoft Office Mobile arrives for iOS

#30

Post by freyrs3 » Fri, Jun 14, 2013, 2:38 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #29

bornhuetter wrote: post #10

If only Microsoft released Office for Linux and Apple let OSX run (in a VM or otherwise) on non-Apple hardware the world would be a much better place.

If Apple let OS X run on other hardware the OS would suffer with them having to spend time supporting so many different configurations. If they didn't their reputation would suffer. Microsoft building Office for Linux would be a complete waste of time and money. The majority of Linux users would complain that it was expensive, closed source, and continue using the free, open alternatives.

> The majority of Linux users would complain that it was expensive, closed source, and continue using the free, open alternatives.

I don't know what you're user base you're sampling but the vast majority of Linux users are not opposed to closed source ( Steam, VMWare, Humble Bundle ) and are quite willing to pay for quality software.