Apple, Google, and Open Source have made Office look like a joke.

[0000757]

Microsoft is turning Office 365 into a joke in my opinion.

With iWork, I get all my apps for FREE as well as online storage and free applications for my mobile devices, and the online web apps are just as fully featured as the desktop applications are, and each application install is an infinite license. The only thing I would ever have to pay for is more storage if I choose to.

With Google Docs, I once again have all my applications free, with free online storage, free applications for my mobile devices, the web versions have all the same features as the desktop version, the applications have an unlimited license, and once again the only thing I have to pay for is more storage if I so choose to.

With Open Source, once again all my applications are free with unlimited licenses, and I can use a free online storage system that I can integrate it with, like Box or Dropbox.

Microsoft Office 365 though? $6.99/month or $69.99/year for 1 license, 1 use on a tablet and smartphone, storage on OneDrive, and 60 minutes of Skype credit (Google offers unlimited calling within North America for free with their accounts), and as soon as I stop paying I lose all of this. Of course I can always just go buy Office individually, but then I have to pick and choose which tier I want and the cheapest one comes with 4 apps (one of which is available for FREE on Windows and tablets/smartphones) for $139.99. For $80 more the only thing they include is an email client! And even still I don't gain access to mobile applications. And the free version of Office 365? Crippled web apps and online storage. That's it. No access to mobile apps or any desktop apps.

What Microsoft needs to do is create a free option that gives users Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, access to the mobile applications, and some online storage for free. It's ridiculous how Microsoft is getting away with overpricing their applications (buying Word stand-alone is $110!!!) while others are offering better services for FREE. If it wasn't for their iron grip on the office application suite you would definitely see a lot less people falling into this trap.

As more and more businesses switch to the iOS and Mac OS platforms, Microsoft is going to need to act quick.

 

[dasmb]

My only conclusion here is that you don't do any real work in Office. None of the solutions you mention OTHER than Office 365 allow for collaborative work in the cloud of documents in a common interchange format with full featured printing, calculation, scripting, merging, annotation and version management.

I think you'll find that covering these use cases, which you might find superfluous, is precisely what will keep Office on top of the pile. They allow business teams to work faster and more effectively producing higher quality artifacts. I'm sad to say that Google Docs (and Box.com) are awesome collaborative tools that produce unpresentable work.

 

[numlock]

My only conclusion here is that you don't do any real work in Office. None of the solutions you mention OTHER than Office 365 allow for collaborative work in the cloud of documents in a common interchange format with full featured printing, calculation, scripting, merging, annotation and version management.

I think you'll find that covering these use cases, which you might find superfluous, is precisely what will keep Office on top of the pile. They allow business teams to work faster and more effectively producing higher quality artifacts. I'm sad to say that Google Docs (and Box.com) are awesome collaborative tools that produce unpresentable work.

what do you mean unpresentable work?

personally i find numbers to be highly disappointing and a bigger threat to calculators than excel and ive felt their web interface to be horribly slow and an ui i dont appreciate.

i and my business have modest requirements (mostly collaboration which google docs is probably best at) but im excited that the new addons will move it as a platform closer to office

but office for enterprise is quite safe i think for the time being.

 

[deluxeshredder]

LibreOffice, Google Docs and iWork still can open only basic Office documents and are all generally worse (except for Keynote).

 

[Michael Goff]

Microsoft is turning Office 365 into a joke in my opinion.

With iWork, I get all my apps for FREE as well as online storage and free applications for my mobile devices, and the online web apps are just as fully featured as the desktop applications are, and each application install is an infinite license. The only thing I would ever have to pay for is more storage if I choose to.

With Google Docs, I once again have all my applications free, with free online storage, free applications for my mobile devices, the web versions have all the same features as the desktop version, the applications have an unlimited license, and once again the only thing I have to pay for is more storage if I so choose to.

With Open Source, once again all my applications are free with unlimited licenses, and I can use a free online storage system that I can integrate it with, like Box or Dropbox.

Microsoft Office 365 though? $6.99/month or $69.99/year for 1 license, 1 use on a tablet and smartphone, storage on OneDrive, and 60 minutes of Skype credit (Google offers unlimited calling within North America for free with their accounts), and as soon as I stop paying I lose all of this. Of course I can always just go buy Office individually, but then I have to pick and choose which tier I want and the cheapest one comes with 4 apps (one of which is available for FREE on Windows and tablets/smartphones) for $139.99. For $80 more the only thing they include is an email client! And even still I don't gain access to mobile applications. And the free version of Office 365? Crippled web apps and online storage. That's it. No access to mobile apps or any desktop apps.

What Microsoft needs to do is create a free option that gives users Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, access to the mobile applications, and some online storage for free. It's ridiculous how Microsoft is getting away with overpricing their applications (buying Word stand-alone is $110!!!) while others are offering better services for FREE. If it wasn't for their iron grip on the office application suite you would definitely see a lot less people falling into this trap.

As more and more businesses switch to the iOS and Mac OS platforms, Microsoft is going to need to act quick.

Microsoft does have a free online Office and they DO give some free storage away. :\

More businesses are switching to OS X? Are you serious? Ubuntu is having more luck than Apple in the desktop arena of business... and they're not having much.

 

[phoenixsan]

For many.....

freelancers and no enterprise users, free alternatives seems to be a good compromise, over Office. Not knowing first hand the 365 option of Office, my opinion can be shortsighted. But the standalone Office apps and the iOS still are plenty useful, both in enterprise and mobile environments.....

 

[Jessica Lares]

I think it is more likely that companies will find better solutions to a spreadsheet, among the other things they used in Office before they go the open source route.

Or they'll keep using the same version of Office as they are now.

 

[roadbloc]

Hardly. Office is the best office suite out there for pro features and compatibility. And there is a free online version FYI.