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Microsoft Could Earn Billions From Office For iOS
Nerval's Lobster writes "Microsoft is leaving billions of dollars on the table by not porting Office to the iPad, according to a new analyst report. That analyst, Morgan Stanley's Adam Holt, believes that Office for iOS would sell to approximately 30 percent of all iPad users; priced at $60 per copy, that comes to a grand total of $2.5 billion per year — minus Apple's cut of the revenues, of course. But does Microsoft actually want Office for iOS out there? It's not necessarily in the company's best interest to rush such a platform to market, even if billions of dollars potentially hang in the balance — it's too busy pushing Office as a cloud-based, OS-agnostic platform. And Microsoft has another reason, aside from pushing the cloud version of Office, to de-emphasize the prospect of its productivity software on iOS: In a bid to draw more customers to its new hardware, Microsoft preloaded its Surface RT tablets with Office; offering the software on a rival touch-screen would take a major selling point off the table."
TFA is riddled with retarded assumptions. Too many times have I seen things like "I think 30% of all people would buy it", based on muddy facts or even no facts at all. GAAAH!
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Surely the proactive response is to market the current generation product, while synergising a coordinated strategy towards pushing market share towards the new market paradigm?
I just gagged a little writing that.
I've been using Open Office / Libre Office for at least 5 years now. It does more than I would ever need it to. Honestly... it has too much. So I don't see how there's even a market anymore for Microsoft Office, cloud or not.
I have to say, the more they update and revise Office, the more broken it seems.
Wouldn't it be nice if they fixed bugs and made it work better with each iteration, instead of worse?
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
There are already office suites for iOS that can read Microsoft files, including one from Apple with cloud syncing and other "stuff". So what is it about Office that would attract iOS users? It cant be the Microsoft brand, its not going to be file compatibility, so what is it?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Didn't we just have a "Magic Numbers" article yesterday about how much OO is worth?
Think of the planet .. recycle the comments from the previous article:
OpenOffice: Worth $21 Million Per Day, If It Were Microsoft Office
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Why can't I get office for iPad.
Only two MicroSoft products are making much money, And Balmer is strangling one of them by ignoring a huge market. Bill G & Steve J had a nice deal to port Office to Macs right after Steve returned.
Microsoft would make a mistake by not providing some sort of native client for popular platforms. Accessing Office through a browser is fine for some but it requires a constant internet connection and can be less responsive than native code. If Microsoft forces iPad (and other tablet users) to use Office 365, they will be making a big usability sacrifice on behalf users that don't need or want it. Better to canibalize your own sales than to leave yourself exposed to competitors (ala iPod v. iPhone.)
I applaud Microsoft for this. Using Office as a stick to try to force people into buying a tablet they don't want is a much better strategy than selling Office to people who actually want to buy it.
No sig today...
Well, porting Office to iOS would potentially reduce the sale of Microsoft Surface. I reckon Microsoft want to have a firmer control of their users.
One of them is that someone would pay $60 for an iOS version of Microsoft office when there are capable software better suited for the iPad for around $10 per application and they are compatible with Office. Microsoft knows this and wisely licenses its file API instead of diminishing their brand.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Unless everyone using an iOS device also has an external keyboard and mouse, an office suite (whether my MS or Google, or ) just does not work. No one is going to type up any sort of real-world document using their two thumbs on their iPhone. Even with a large screen on the iPad, typing is much more efficient using a keyboard. Navigating neighboring cells in a spreadsheet is quicker with the arrow keys than pointing with one's finger. I could go on and on about the ergonomics of doing office-application work on iOS. And then there's the isolation of every app inside their own sandbox that makes importing objects between applications a bit more difficult.
I think the reason that all these tablet devices do not have true office suites is because the current means of inputting data are best left for devices with real keyboards.
Let's revisit after they have a port for their own mobile GUI, before we start thinking they are going to port to Apple (or are holding back doing so).
Such a port to a radically different GUI paradigms is going to be a major re-write. It will take years. It isn't simple a case of recompile for new architecture.
I predict the iPad (and all tablets for that matter) are little more than a fad. I know people who bought them(iPad as well as Samsung Galaxy). They were a fun toy for a couple of weeks and now they collect dust (except for when the kids play an occasional game). These same people who bought them are back to using their laptops and full-sized PCs. The rumors of their demise have been greatly exaggerated.
It's not necessarily in the company's best interest to rush such a platform to market, even if billions of dollars potentially hang in the balance
Rush? You've had an SDK for "iOS" since 2008. If a version of MS Office ever appeared, I think you could call MS' reaction positively glacial.
If the task is going to take a few minutes or less then an iPad seems to work just fine. If the task is going to take longer than that then an external bluetooth keyboard makes it quite practical to use an iPad for lightweight word processing and spreadsheet needs. As your normal day-to-day work environment, no, but when you are out and about I think it can be quite practical for some. This opinion is based on use of Apple's Pages and Numbers apps for Mac and iOS.
iPad apps don't have a single UI paradigm. I don't see why Metro wouldn't work fine for MS apps.
I had a little look at what office would cost me. £220($340) for the crippled version £389.99($605) for the full version. I have used LibreOffice(originally openoffice) and it even has advantages over Microsoft Office its not just bad value. Its insanely overpriced.
the $2 billion 'estimate' is based on 30% sales to every ipad sold.. which is a bit over 120 million worldwide.
i think most ipads are used mainly as toys (games, email, browsing, chatting, facebook and twitter shit, etc), not for actual 'work'.
imho, your 1% is a little low, that 30% is way high. perhaps 10-15% of ipads in north america and europe, and other "first world" (for lack of better term) markets
To build on your point, I think looking at the sales numbers (if such can be found) on the iWorks applications from Apple would at least give a better baseline than the guess they are making. If you could make a reasonable assumption on business's adoption of Office instead, then you would have a guess based more on facts.
I have an iPad I use at work every day. I use iWorks to review documents sent to me and it does an OK job as long as long as the documents are fairly standard. Unfortunately, the default MS fonts and our business's custom one cause Keynote to render PowerPoint files fairly poorly when it tries to find a font close enough.
Moral of the story: I would gladly download a copy of Office for iPad
I love the sound of distortion in the morning -- webcommando
This would violate MS commandment #1; Thou shalt never do anything that could threaten the MS desktop monopoly.
why not Android they can sell it on there own with 0% cut to Google or any other store.
And owned by Google. Have you tried editing Google Docs recently? It's better than Office 365.
Should software be free?
I'm going "By Deus" on software going for $0.99
Or the ones going for free. Only because money is hard to come by in *my* life. I completely support (in spirit, not monetary contributions) free and open source software.
I can't afford to contribute several hundred hours of my time right now because I have monthly student debt to pay back.
All Microsoft would have to do is offer better functionality than Apple's offerings do. I upgraded Numbers both on my iMac & my iPhone to the tune of $30 so I could take advantage of the new iCloud features, but I'm sorely disappointed. The iPhone app is atrocious. Spreadsheets just sort of float on the screen. You'd expect them at least to be anchored to the top & left like most other spreadsheet programs I've downloaded are. If I would have known it was that bad, I would have passed on it.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Employer: What makes you qualified to be an analyst?
You: I have an opinion.
Employer: YOU'RE FUCKING HIRED!
You: HELLS YEAH!
You're correct on all points. However, those external keyboards aren't cheap. On average, they even cost more than the suggested $60 for the office suite. (Most of the ones I'm seeing from both Google and reviews average around $100.) Let's just say the total package is somewhere between $100 and $150 for both keyboard and office suite. If you compare that to the total cost of using any one of the popular apps on iOS devices, it doesn't seem so appealing. I'm not saying that it can't work for some. However, I don't think that it will amount to billions of dollars.
What MS should do is port Office and provide the IOS version for free to users.....outside of the app store. This would provide incentive for many IOS users, who would not have otherwise, to finally jailbreak their devices, decoupling from the Apple "ecosystem" which is the main detractor to true competition in this space. Apple's App Store isn't the only "ecosystem" customer lock-in mechanism, but, it is certainly the most pervasive. These tech companies are starting to look more and more like the cable/telephone/internet companies all the time; three year contracts here we come. Of course MS and others are trying to replicate this, but, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Just wanted to also add that if the task is only going to take a few minutes, it seems really hard justifying the $60 pricetag for something you are only going to use for "just a few minutes." And if you had lots and lots of tasks that each only take "just a few minutes" then wouldn't you be better off using "the real deal" (i.e. an actual computer with the full application suite)?
Why isn't Apple writing good spreadsheet and word programs? I mean Steve Jobs claimed to have invented fonts. Sure wouldn't be that big of a deal to use some open source code for it like they did for their OS.
Sure, a possibility exists that their Spreadsheet would make you bankrupt but it's still an easier bet than Apple Maps.
iOS doesn't even have a concept of a cursor (mouse pointer) so it would be difficult to use a mouse with say Word on iOS.
In context to your quotes by the measure of a CEO its share value, Ballmer is doing an awful lot better than Cook
Have you actually looked at the stocks? Apple has gone from $7.50 in 2003 to over $464 at the time I write this. Microsoft's stock over the same period is essentially unchanged. It was around $25 in 2003 and still is. Cook has been in charge for roughly one year and the stock had a huge run up during that time but is now basically back to where it was when he started as CEO.
Frankly Tim Cook hasn't been on the job long enough to really tell how he is doing. We'll have a better idea in another year. Balmer has a long track record at this point and the price of MSFT has gone nowhere during his tenure. Why MSFT shareholders aren't calling for his head is something that eludes me.
Office-type applications will never be a good fit for tablets and smartphones. The applications are primarily used for content creation. The devices are primarily useful for content consumption, and suck at content creation in almost every conceivable way, starting with having tiny screens and having no fast, accurate way to input data.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I would say the numbers would be much more likely to look like this. 3% of iOS users would buy it for $6.
Some idiot thought all our management needed iPads, one month later and 90% of the managers don't even touch the device while at work. It's not a productivity tool and a high priced productivity app is not going to be popular when everyone already has laptops with full features and function.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
My friends in the iOS app business see much smaller margins than vs desktop. Now consider that Apple takes 30% of the purchase price. This means that of the $60 cost Apple walks away with a handsome $18 leaving MSFT with $42. Unless the profit margin is such that there is a 60% mark-up on software MSFT stands to make *less* than Apple.
Microsoft can _just barely_ get Office on to their own surface tablets. Even then it doesn't really work all that well. Porting to iOS? Forget about it.
No, they are not leaving money on the table.
Claiming that selling office for iOS would bring them more profit ignores all the side-effects and especially that the only reason MS is as rich as they are is monopoly rent.
Basically, they are drug dealers who would NOT profit from selling their customers a "brew at home" kit, even though such a thing might seem like a great idea with massive revenue potential.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
30% at $10, I could believe
5% at $60, I could believe
Either way, I'd be much more conservative... about 1/6 of what the author estimates. But $400 million/year is still nothing to sneeze at, considering it wouldn't cost nearly that much to build.
And the premise I agree with... Microsoft should become more interoperable and would make more money doing so. That is why Google is winning.
"Hi, I'm a Mac. That's PC. Hi, there, PC... I'm sorry I passive aggressively bullied you for years. Gee, that Office sure made a great flotation device when I started sinking a few years ago. How about you throw me another just in case my tablet starts to drag me under?"
Apple is in the midst of a slow death spirial now that Steve Jobs sitting in a jar somewhere.
By the time Microsoft gets done with the port, it will even be worse for iOS devices...
Some things are just inevitable....
Do you ever use a calculator? A notepad? A camera? A barcode scanner? A book?
Or do you always have a notebook in your lap?
Sorry, but I'm not sure what your comment has to do with mine. Did you reply to the wrong post?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Just like IBM protected their mainframe biz by overpricing PCs. Seems a time-tested strategy !!
..there are zero alternatives to dragging a hot and heavy clunker from power outlet to power outlet. Because it lasts for not more than two hours.
As much as there are zero alternatives to mainframes. It is an illusion to think Unix and Windows server are of any use. Only mainframes, I say !!
Just wanted to also add that if the task is only going to take a few minutes, it seems really hard justifying the $60 pricetag for something you are only going to use for "just a few minutes." And if you had lots and lots of tasks that each only take "just a few minutes" then wouldn't you be better off using "the real deal" (i.e. an actual computer with the full application suite)?
Sometimes I prefer to travel light. Lets say a 5 hour flight. If I am only going to work on documentation and not do any coding I may prefer an iPad plus Bluetooth keyboard over a laptop. Lets say its just a lunch time meeting where I had only planed on presenting info but the other party would like to make a small change (or I had noticed a small error), I may prefer only the iPad and just use the onscreen keyboard. It all depends on the job at hand, different tools for different jobs.
All of those devices can be used to produce data. And all of them are variously portable. A librarian, reading the shelves doesn't take a hand truck and haul a bookcase to her desk. No, she has a little device. which she can scan the books, in situ, in order to determine if books are out of order, or missing.
If I'm trying to look at and analyse a large map or drawing unfolded on my table, it's easiest to record data on a device that it's in my hands when I move about my workspace, Similarly, a calculator can be used to make calculations in situ.
I don'nt read books on a computer. I read them in bed, or in a easy chair. A kindle or an ipad has nearly the same form factor.
And so on, and so forth. An ipad has got a better form factor for a lot of little things, that add up. And one big thing-- it's great for browsing the web from anywhere.
2.5 billions only with the american 10^9 instead of the normal 10^12 definition of billion.
To avoid such confusion, please DO NOT use the number word billion anymore.
"Do you ever use a calculator?"
The most complicated of which cost ~$100. Almost every task you want to complete can be done with a $20 one.
A tablet costs...?
"A notepad?"
Have you ever used one, then tried to use a tablet as one?
Notebooks allow freehand drawing easily with a pen. A tablet is a pain in the arse to draw on.
And a notepad and pen cost $2. A tablet costs...?
" A camera?"
How many cameras are 11"x8"?
"A barcode scanner?"
How many are 11"x8"? And this is hardly content creation.
And a barcode scanner costs $40. A tablet..?
"A book?"
A consumption only device. As per GGGP post's assertion. And a tablet is worse than a book to read from. Despite a book costing $20 and a tablet...?
Now, how many of those things are as complex to operate as Office 2003 or similar?
90% of the time I use MS Office on my desktop, I am not typing things up from scratch. Most of the time, I'm reading or editing existing documents, and those edits generally don't involve a lot of (re-) typing. Most of my spreadsheets are exported from a ERP system or database, not typed in by hand.
I don't have a tablet of any kind, but if I did, I'd still want an office suite on it. I could always just buy a keyboard if I suddenly decided to start writing a novel on the damn thing.
Apple sells more iPads than any single PC maker sells ANYTHING with Windows 7 or 8 on it. To play semantics at this point is the same as just deciding MS Office isn't going to run on Dells anymore.
There is no "business case" to avoid iOS. iOS is growing like crazy, so a SMART business is gonna figure out how to get Office to run... There are plenty of wannabe office suits on iOS now. There's a great big giant opportunity to make piles of money. $2 billion is 5%'er even in the corporate world... It shows how crazy rich Microsoft is that they can just leave that on the table getting stale because they want to make a point. Had the DOJ busted them up, they'd be fighting for every dime...
Frankly Tim Cook hasn't been on the job long enough to really tell how he is doing
Apples shares have been in freefall from 705 to 450...and that is under Tim Cook...and his response to this has been *nothing*..Shares rose under Elop too...for a few months. The reality is you might want Cook to catch his breath settle in, but right now Apple is burning. Shareholders are calling for Tim Cook to do something with those Billions, the reality is it might be a little late.
Perfect example! If the company was broken up into the OS group and the Application groups the apps group would have had this on iOS from the beginning. Money to be had by all.
The OS group would have had Windows on just about everything including ARM years ago as well.
Microsoft wont want to give other platforms the option. They want people to switch to theirs, not stay where they are at.
I had a little look at what office would cost me. $340 for the crippled version $605 for the full version.
The geek always quotes retail list for the most expensive version of Office he can find. The odds are quite good, of course, that he qualifies for the academic or professional discount.
If his employer supports Microsoft's Home Use Program, MS Office Pro 2013 is his for $10 US.
If he is a graduate or undergraduate student, Office 365 University 2013 costs $80 for a four year - renewable - subscription.
I'll ignore for the moment, the campus the wide agreement, programs like DreamSpark and so on.
The high end retail versions of Office sell to the small businessman or middle class professional who is interested in tight integration with his accounting program and other applications.
His clients and correspondents use Office.
His secretary knows Office. The temp service knows Office.
His trade and professional associations supply him with customized templates and other resources that can be counted on to work reliably only with Office.
How soon will our iOS devices be riddled with Malware and viruses after they release their app
Your'e all thinking it, I just said it for you
There is a different between, maintaining share price over 10 years ...and losing 35% of its value in 3 months. Those profits are already accounted for in its current share price. The reality is Apple is slowing http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130214005415/en/Android-iOS-Combinid. And Timmy the highest paid CEO in the world, and has done *nothing*.
The reality is your arguing Apple is just another electronics company now...and I agree wholeheartedly.
The geek always quotes retail list for the most expensive version of Office he can find.
Lets get a few things right. I've never been a geek, and only ever seen that word used by bullies. The price is for the version I am eligible. Just because other people are entitled to discounts in educational for Microsoft self serving reasons does not mean I am. I personally have had no problems using LibreOffice...but them its pretty similar to every other office product ever.
Calling Microsoft Office "productivity software" is hilarious. I know we've all spent hours trying to do the simplest things with Office. I recently spent nine hours including querying a forum and Googling trying to figure out how to get Word to number equations. Nine hours, and all I got was a clumsy work-around. And I know this is the "right answer" and that I didn't miss something.
All of those devices can be used to produce data.
OK, but none of them produces the kind of data you create in Office-like applications. I don't see what any of them has to do with the topic at hand. To reiterate my original point, I'm not saying tablets and smartphones don't have their uses, just that they are useful for content consumption (like the book reading example you mentioned) but not very suitable for content creation (which is what Office applications are primarily used for).
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
There is no "business case" to avoid iOS.
Of course there is: porting a vast suite of software to an entirely new OS is going to cost a fortune. No-one I've seen has yet made a convincing case for why anyone would spend serious money to buy an office suite on a touch-only tablet or smartphone, never mind enough people doing it to actually make the port profitable.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
"Content Creation" sounds like something Orwell would have disapproved of.
...the Surface tablets would have been doing well. They're not. Oops!
Make no mistake about it: Microsoft desperately wants to leverage on iOS's large user base to push its new Office subscription model, and in the process hires some paid shills ('tech analysts' or 'tech forecasters') to cajole Apple into relenting.
A tablet (same as a phone) is a media consumption device, despite what Microsoft claims to the contrary. If you want to work and dabble in productivity, a desktop or laptop would be the choice. Apple has that covered with OSX.
Microsoft is really run by idiots these days. Between negative attack ads on Google/Apple and patent trolling, it is doing nothing really productive these days.
What makes anyone think Microsoft could do this successfully? They clearly botched Windows 8 when they tried to slap a touchscreen interface on the face of a traditional computing environment. The fact that there are now businesses willing to downgrade you to Windows 7 (or even XP) is proof that Microsoft doesn't get the fact that tablets and laptop/desktops are two entirely different computing experiences and should be treated as such. Simply cramming bloated apps like Excel and Word into a tablet isn't going to cut it.
Microsoft is leaving thousands on the table by not porting Office to Linux!
And how is this different from not porting iTunes to Android or WP7? Microsoft wants to use the flagship product to drive their OS's sales, just as Apple does with restricting mobile iTunes to iOS. As the full Windows 8 OS is shoehorned into more mobile friendly packages, it will be interesting to see how or if Apple tries to restricts iTunes to desktop devices.
So MS has no one who can run the numbers and give management a recommendation? The entire company is software developers throwing chairs at each other? This one random blogger knows more than Microsoft's own business analysts? Somehow I doubt it.
that's a good joke, did he ever try to type anything seriosu on touchscreen keyboard ?
I don't understand why people use MS Office. It's not as if it's the only office suite available, and it isn't the most superior in any way. I've used the alternatives in academic and professional settings for over a decade. Never has there been a moment when I thought, "gee, this would be better if I spent hundreds of dollars on MS Office instead of using my comparable office suite." I've never been asked by a client, professor, or publisher to use Microsoft Office for a submission when I can submit a formatting-safe PDF, or export to docx (just have to be careful to use standard fonts).
People who use MS Office don't pay for the expense of superior software, they pay for the expense of naivete.
Last week I had to VNC into my desktop to edit a word file, PDF, and email out... from my iPad. As obtuse, slow, and cumbersome as that solution was, it was the easiest approach to do it without a file-compatible solution native to the iPad. The other approach is to "email your secretary the changes and have them send it out." For small levels of input (and full feature compatibility), a tablet version works quite well and makes a lot of sense. Once you limit what features you can access though, it is no longer the same and loses a lot of the functionality-- hence my lack of Apple's offerings.