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Microsoft Office Finally Gets iOS App
An anonymous reader writes "After years of rumors and months of bickering with Apple over revenue splits, Microsoft has finally released an official iOS app for Office 365 subscribers, allowing people to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint on their iPhones and iPads. According to a hands-on report with the software, the Office app has basic functionality, but is missing some key productivity features. 'These include: font options, text alignment, bulleted lists and, again, more color choices, all of which you can find in, say, the Google Drive app.' They say it's a fairly useful addition for current subscribers, but certainly not enough to make it worth the Office 365 subscription fee on its own. 'We can't tell if Microsoft deliberately handicapped Office Mobile for iPhone, or if it's simply saving some features for a later update. (A company rep declined to comment on what we can expect from future versions.) We're willing to believe Microsoft still has some unfinished items on its to-do list, but even so, it's a shame that iPhone users waited this long for an Office app, only to get something with such a minimal feature set. All told, Office Mobile represents a good enough start for Microsoft, and in some ways it's better than Google Drive, particularly where spreadsheets are concerned. Still, it's miles behind other office apps for iOS, including Apple iWork.'"
> missing some key productivity features. 'These include: font options, text alignment, bulleted lists
Is it a joke?
People are going to compose documents, spreadsheets, etc. on a tablet??
Maybe I need more coffee, can someone explain why anyone would want this?
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In case you haven'y noticed, worker bees vastly outnumber "bosses". I rarely take my laptop home these days, but my tablet is also redundant for me personally at work.
Having said that, I bought a couple of tablets for some of our "worker bees" out in the workshop. They use them for an app I wrote that lets them receive new machining tasks, and give live updates on production status from out on the floor. So tablets aren't just useful for PHBs and layabouts.
which is totally what she said
No iPad support, which is arguably the largest use case scenario.
You have to subscribe to Office 365.
You can't just buy it in the app store.
I honestly can't come up with a way they could have fucked this up any more. Once again MS snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.
No thanks; I'll carry on using (free) Google docs plus the Apple apps I already purchased, (for les than the monthly cost of Ofice360) for those very rare occassions that I want to edit 'office' docs on my iDevices.
Follows announcement that search engine for Siri will go from Google to Bing.
http://tech2.in.com/news/ios/apple-ditches-google-partners-with-bing-for-siri-search/876324
checking office docs on a phone seems prohibitive regardless of OS. Microsoft has for roughly a decade tried to "phone" as best it can and shouldnt have any incentive to participate in developing its killer app for iDevices at all. perhaps we're 'embracing' here for the sake of the game? that had we not offered anything at all, Apple would simply have thrown developers at the problem or worse, market share for office365 would have taken a hit. It also prevents C-Level iphone users from getting so angry over the absence as to say "screw it, we use a standard that works with any phone now"
i get the point from MS: if you need something to get windows work done, specifically Microsoft Office or Sharepoint, it might well be worth your while to look into a microsoft phone instead. Its vastly cheaper than an iPhone and while not as "cool" its still more effective than the ported app for any other platform.
Good people go to bed earlier.
They could easily release an iPad app without paying Apple the 30% - they just make the app require an Office 365 account. Done. Sign up for the account online, go back to the app, done.
They only have to pay Apple the 30% _IF_ users can sign up for the account _IN_ the app. If they do so via a web browser, on their own, it allows the developer to avoid the 30% cut to Apple.
Please do try to understand how the process works before offering your opinion on it.
It's pretty obvious what Microsoft are doing here:
1. release a very limited version of Office for iOS
2. dumb users will badmouth iOS/iDevices because "it can't even handle a full version of Office"
3. the Office file formats get to survive a little longer because "it's even compatible with Apple devices"
Very sneaky, but what do you expect from Microsoft?
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I don't get this. When I buy a copy of MS Office at Best Buy, they get a little cut, and so does the supplier that Best Buy purchases from. I'm not sure what the usual split is between Microsoft, the supplier and the retailer, but I'm sure it's not that far off from 30%. I don't see why it should work any different if I set up a software store that only sells licenses and not disks.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Nobody wants to manipulate long professional Word documents or do heavy Excel work with an iPad.
So basically, the market penetration on this will be zero, because Office 365
Meanwhile, in reality: One million subscriptions in 3.5 months.
If you connect a keyboard to it, its a shitty PC. Why not use a real PC?
What? That sounds ludicrous. Do you have actual examples of this or are you listing hypothetical that may or may not have happened?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
There is no Office for iPad.
Atleast read the post titles of the top two posts before rushing to post your two cents you think are worth millions.
He didn't say there was an Office for iPad. He said there was an Office for iOS. The last time I checked, you can run an iOS app in the iPad even if it was made for iPhone/iPod Touch. It may not optimized for an iPad's screen but it will run.
Also, read the part of the summary where it says Apple's forced 30% cut was keeping Office for iPad on hold, so Apple deserves part of the blame for that and the ad is justified in flaunting Office on Windows RT and Windows 8.
You complain of others not understanding an issue but you misstated the problem yourself in so many ways. Apple's 30% cut comes from two sources: 1) 30% of the price of the app or 2) 30% of any subscription revenue generated within the app. Microsoft is under no obligations to do either. If they offered the app for free they don't have to pay Apple. If a user cannot create a subscription within the app, they don't have to pay Apple. This is the same for everyone not specially created for MS. MS wanted Apple to change the rules for them and how is that Apple's fault if they said no?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Because Office is not the same as every other 99c fart app on the App store.
The Office app needs special rules because you and MS say it's special. Yeah, that's not a reason. So all the subscription based apps like the WSJ app can do whatever they want because they are special too?.
Which app on the iPad among the million apps following the "rules" is going get more business sales in companies for the iPad apart from Office?
Funny how you defined "business sales" because if you want to talk millions in sales to consumers you have to ignore Pandora, Kindle, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc.
Thus, MS is in a way stronger negotiating position than the developer of a fart sounds app. If you can't understand that simple logic, I have nothing more to say to you.
Pandora, Kindle, Angry Birds, etc. are not fart apps. It's not logic on your part; it's willful blindness as you appear to be a MS apologist.
If you went to any business in this world and you wanted them to make exceptions for you, you would say it's partially their fault if they say no? What kind of warped sense of entitlement do you have? Can you say to a potential landlord that you want to pay less rent than he's offering and then blame him because he didn't say yes? That the landlord is partially to blame that you were without an apartment. The delay was all MS. They wanted Apple to change the rules. Apple said no. End of story.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.