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Microsoft, Nokia Team To Add Mobile Office Apps To Phones
CWmike writes "On the same day a court banned sales of Microsoft Office for PCs, Microsoft and Nokia said they are working together to put Microsoft Office on Nokia handsets. It's a move that should give Microsoft leverage against Google and others that are attacking its Office business with free or low-priced Web apps. The aim of the deal is to bring an application called Microsoft Office Mobile to Nokia's Symbian devices, they said. They will also do the same for other Microsoft communications, collaboration and device-management software. The applications will be available first on Nokia's E-series phones, but eventually will extend to other Nokia handsets. The Microsoft-Nokia deal brings two competitors together, but could spell the end of Windows Mobile. Gartner analyst Nick Jones said he is becoming 'more concerned' about the future for Windows Mobile and added in a blog today that Windows Mobile 7 could be Microsoft's last update of the product."
Can anyone even imagine creating a serious document on any cellphone? That would be hellish.
Seriously, someone explain to me why this is such a big deal? The announcement was made a few days ago that a joint announcement was forthcoming, and this is all they have? I seriously don't get it. I used to own a Nokia Communicator 9300i back in the day that was fully able to edit word and excel documents. Ok, not the most complicated ones, but the apps got the job done pretty well. This was at least 3 years ago by now.
Whooptiedoo! We can now edit files on the go! (sound familiar?)
What am I missing here?
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Uh? Who in their right mind would even want to use office on a mobile phone? The UI is bad as it is on a full-size PC.
Seriously, a lot of these "tools" are just crap for middle management that for some reason feels empowered when they can do the secretaries job, just worse.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
According to this Link, the claim is that they want to battle Balckberry's RIM.
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For many years, Microsoft has had the nasty habit of breaking their own software and data formats to force customers to upgrade. It seems that corporations are finally pushing back and refusing the upgrade cycle. This was happening on a large scale with XP, mostly because Vista required a hardware upgrade, and because the 'upgrade' cycle happening during a time of budget tightening.
Really, Microsoft has been cannibalizing their own business for profits. They don't have the ability to innovate and they have been resorting to forcing upgrades on their customers to maintain revenue. It's too bad, they had a lot of money and they were in the best position to leverage their strategic position to branch into new businesses. But, they didn't have the ability to invest the money in new technology and make it pay.
So many obvious opportunities simply slipped through Microsoft's fingers. They could have owned browsing, searching and the internet in general, they could have taken over business software, they could have owned gaming. Microsoft, like GM, seems to have gotten too big without redefining themselves.
The end of Microsoft will be good for software development and for consumers. Microsoft has been a tax on computing and a hindrance to innovation. Windows 7 should be the end.
Best regards.
If you want/need to type a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet on your damn phone then put down the phone, quit the ridiculous job that is consuming your life, and go enjoy life. A tiny screen and keyboard is no way to go through life, son.
I guess I am throwing in the towel on my geek cred here, but seriously as many IT jobs as I've had and this has never been a need (or want).
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Well, you forgot to tell that any bluetooth keyboard (Apple preferred for fun) can be "plugged" to Nokia smart phones to use as input, adding more to shock.
Oh (for iPhone users), no hack needed. Nokia advertises the driver/app themselves and gives free.
Citation needed.
The standard office file formats (i.e. doc, xls, etc) were the same from Office 97 to Office 2003. The Office 2007 file formats (docx, xlsx, etc) are readable and writable by Office 2000 or later. Contrast this with a company like Autodesk, where the file formats change every three years (in a thinly disguised attempt to sell upgrades) and I find it hard to agree with the statement you make above.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
That's a whole truck load of BS you just posted there my friend.
For many years, Microsoft has had the nasty habit of breaking their own software and data formats to force customers to upgrade.
If anything, MS bends over backwards to maintain backwards compatibility. Vista was their first OS in which you couldn't run DOS apps (at least w/o third party s/w). Office 2k7 is completely able to consume/publish in Office 2k3 formats. Office 2k3 is completely able to consume/publish in Office 2k7 formats. 64-bit Vista and 64-bit Win7 can still run your 32-bit Windows apps. Office 2k3, Office 2k7, Vista, Win2k3, WS08, XP etc. are all still supported (some are past their 5-year mainstream support lifecycles but are in extended support). What the hell are you talking about???
This was happening on a large scale with XP, mostly because Vista required a hardware upgrade, and because the 'upgrade' cycle happening during a time of budget tightening.
Prove it. You're running your mouth off in a public forum so be prepared to back your claims up. Large scale? Because of a hardware upgrade? Time of budget tightening? And MS considered all the factors when designing for Vista? References please!!
Really, Microsoft has been cannibalizing their own business for profits.
Nothing insightful there -- when you own 90+% of the market, you are your own biggest competitor. But cannibalizing? Please explain? They were eating their own sales to get more of their own sales? That doesn't even make sense!
they have been resorting to forcing upgrades
How did they force people to upgrade? References? Sources? Anything? Did they hold a gun to someone's head? Did they prematurely curtail the mainstream support of some product? Did they decide to forego an extended support lifecycle of some product? What on god's green earth are you talking about??
The end of Microsoft will be good for software development and for consumers.
There's absolutely no proof / logic by which you can make that claim definitively. No matter what you say, there will be counter-arguments that can be made. So understand that your view is simply colored by your MS hatred.
Microsoft has been a tax on computing and a hindrance to innovation.
This is slashdot, so I guess you'll get modded +5 Insightful for this kind of unsubstantiated drivel..
Windows 7 should be the end.
???
You should be the one to decide that right?...
Just because you hate MS for some irrational reasons, doesn't mean they will stop trying their best. If you dislike Windows, you have other options that you can exercise. But pretending that Windows is somehow broken or a dying product is, well, typical slashdot trolling.