Apple Just Screwed Microsoft!

[osx11]

Microsoft makes money with three main products:

- Productivity (Office)
- Operating System (Windows)
- Gaming Xbox

Now that Apple has made their Productivity (iWork) and OS (Mavericks) free, what will Microsoft do?

Microsoft is a software company, and Apple appears to be making software free.

This could be interesting.....

 

[maflynn]

Not really.

iWork/iLife is only free to people who buy their macs/iOS devices. You don't own it now, and didn't an apple product, you'll need to shell out money for it.

As for Mavericks free shaking up MS, not really. Apple is a hardware company that uses software to drive hardware sales. MS is a software company pure and simple.

 

[macred]

Microsoft makes money with three main products:

- Productivity (Office)
- Operating System (Windows)
- Gaming Xbox

Now that Apple has made their Productivity (iWork) and OS (Mavericks) free, what will Microsoft do?

Microsoft is a software company, and Apple appears to be making software free.

This could be interesting.....

It's irrelevant, but it does make for a good headline that will impress the masses.

 

[roadbloc]

Microsoft makes money with three main products:

- Productivity (Office)
- Operating System (Windows)
- Gaming Xbox

Now that Apple has made their Productivity (iWork) and OS (Mavericks) free, what will Microsoft do?

Microsoft is a software company, and Apple appears to be making software free.

This could be interesting.....

As far as I'm concerned, when their base Mac model costs around £1000, OS X should be free. It's nice they've finally seen this as I never agreed to the early days of £120 to upgrade. The £20 days of Lion and Mountain Lion were better, but even better is free. Microsoft make most their money on software, not hardware, but despite this, still make Windows 8.1 free for Windows 8 users which is also just as good since Windows 8 was certainly a little questionable in places. You forget that most users don't actually care for upgrading their PCs.

I was actually hoping Apple would actually do a serious overhaul for iWork and maybe make it a serious competitor to Office. But all they did was make the icons a little psychedelic. So as it stands, iWork is no match to Office. Pages is a nice word processor for me sometimes, but it is terrible at handling large documents, especially when the autosave feature causes it to freeze slightly on my Mac every 15 min when it chooses to save. But again, it's great that Apple have made iWork free. What most people on here don't realise though, is that Microsoft have had it covered for years. There has been a free online version of Office available for ages now as well as a free feature reduced version called "Office Starter Edition" downloadable from the Microsoft website.

Apple's decision to give away their software for free is one I would have done ages ago if I had been in charge. But I never thought it was going to happen, so now that it has, it certainly isn't a bad thing. But Microsoft will be fine since their software is of a much higher quality than Apple's (and supported for a hell of a lot longer). Especially in the Office department.

 

[chown33]

As for Mavericks free shaking up MS, not really. Apple is a hardware company that uses software to drive hardware sales. MS is a software company pure and simple.

Their Surface lineup suggests they're trying to change that. Their success at it remains to be seen.

To the OP, did MS's release of Surface mean MS screwed Apple? Or do time and chance happen to play a part.

 

[MyMac1976]

I have iWork and Office I use iWork when I can but really I need to use office. Honesty Libreoffice seems to have better copatibility than iWork.

OP people have said the one thing or another has broken MS's back for many years it's yet to happen. I really don't want MS's back broken they do a lot of blue sky type reseach that apple is to greedy to de on their own. The world needs MS it doesn't need Apple.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Microsoft makes money with three main products:

- Productivity (Office)
- Operating System (Windows)
- Gaming Xbox

Now that Apple has made their Productivity (iWork) and OS (Mavericks) free, what will Microsoft do?

Microsoft is a software company, and Apple appears to be making software free.

This could be interesting.....

It's not a big deal. All companies try to commoditize their complements to get an edge on their competitors. The whole making software free thing, Google already did did a long time ago.

MS's been trying to disrupt Apple through technological convergence, uniting the tablet and PC into one. If they're successful Apple will be screwed because they have no way to unite an ARM based tablet ecosystem and an x86 based PC ecosystem without blowing one of them up. They're also trying to leverage the cloud as a new software profit stream, which is something Apple sucks at.

With Office Suites, there are two submarkets - traditional market and cloud. MS Office still dominates the traditional market, which is disappearing because it's linked to the PC market decline. The battle for the future is in the cloud and iWorks is not a major player, neither is Libreoffice or whatever alternatives people are mentioning. Market battle right now is between Google Docs and Office 365.

 

[needfx]

...better is free.

"Free is Good"

-Craig Federighi

 

[snberk103]

Microsoft makes money with three main products:

- Productivity (Office)
...
Now that Apple has made their Productivity (iWork) ... free, what will Microsoft do?

Microsoft is a software company, and Apple appears to be making software free.

This could be interesting.....

From what I'm reading, Apple has basically gutted their productivity suite (iWork) and seriously dumbed it down. In other words, more Apple users are going to be buying Office. Even if three quarters of the iWork abandoners go for the paid and free alternatives to Office, that's still more Office users.

And.... since many many Mac users buy a Windows license as well, either with Bootcamp or a VM, that also doesn't hurt MS. Especially since a Windows license for a Mac is almost always purchased as either full retail or an educational discount - as opposed to the heavily discounted OEM licenses that MS receives when Windows as bundled with a computer.

What is hurting MS is not Mavericks or iWork... it's iOS. MS has virtually none of that market... either with an OS or Office. Though, isn't MS about to release an version of Office for iOS? Not up on my rumours in that area...

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Since Pages has been gutted for features, Apple actually just promoted Word.

 

[firedept]

Since Pages has been gutted for features, Apple actually just promoted Word.

Now here is a statement that I have to agree with. The new Pages has been dumbed down. I am actually using the old version of Pages as it is more feature rich.

 

[boss.king]

I actually prefer Keynote to Powerpoint. Pages on the other hand... what a pile of crap. I updated today and now I can't even email Pages files. Numbers is simply a joke compared to Excel. MSFT has nothing to worry about when Apple is offering substandard rivals for free. Libre Office has been available for years and MSFT is doing just fine.

 

[atticus27]

what's apple OS marketshare like 10%? Microsoft will do just fine as long as they keep licensing windows out to company's that put them on cheap computers (I'd assume the majority of there office sales are from windows).
I'm interested to see how the xbone and ps4 will sell, since both companies are still gonna support current gen consoles for a few more years

 

[roadbloc]

Since Pages has been gutted for features, Apple actually just promoted Word.

Wait... they've removed features? I haven't actually been able to try it yet since my DVD copy refuses to run or update on Mavericks.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Wait... they've removed features? I haven't actually been able to try it yet since my DVD copy refuses to run or update on Mavericks.

Yeah. Pages is now TextEdit Pro. THere's a good thread in the Application sub forum.

 

[mwa]

As far as I'm concerned, when their base Mac model costs around £1000, OS X should be free.

...but you [the collective 'you' in reference to the general public] pay for superior quality products, something people readily admit in regards to trade tools and cars but oddly not in connection to computers; they want better quality computers but complain about paying more for it.

And when comparing Mac laptops to comparably spec'd Windows competition, the Mac falls in the middle - not including the AV that using Windows requires for 99.9% of the buyers.

OS X could cost money to upgrade, and I would gladly pay it. The software itself, in my opinion, is worth the price. That doesn't make me a stooge, a Cool-Aid drinker, or a marketing sucker - it makes me intelligent enough to buy what works for me personally without being swayed by something as mundane as cost: I buy myself a better quality product, and I pay more money for it. Fair is fair.

...the base Mac starts at £499 in the UK. I just saved you £501!

 

[NewbieCanada]

Microsoft makes money with three main products:

- Productivity (Office)
- Operating System (Windows)
- Gaming Xbox

Now that Apple has made their Productivity (iWork) and OS (Mavericks) free, what will Microsoft do?

Continue right along selling it to Windows-based corporate clients who account for the vast majority of sales.

Erm, you did know iWorks and OS X won't actually run on the computers that Microsoft sells most of their products for? Dell, HP, Lenovo and all the other manufacturers, apart from Apple, are going to keep on including Windows on their machines because there's no other option.

 

[osx11]

Continue right along selling it to Windows-based corporate clients who account for the vast majority of sales.

Erm, you did know iWorks and OS X won't actually run on the computers that Microsoft sells most of their products for? Dell, HP, Lenovo and all the other manufacturers, apart from Apple, are going to keep on including Windows on their machines because there's no other option.

Yes, but besides the price, I see no reason for consumers to buy microsoft products. The average windows user will not pay $100 each year to write something in word or add a few things in excel. Apple is clearly focused on the consumer whereas Microsoft caters to the corporate world.

There is nothing wrong with that, but even windows 8 is not being adopted in the business community, they are just upgrading to Windows 7.

The corporate world is invested in the microsoft universe, but I'm sure they're not enthusiastic about that.

 

[NewbieCanada]

Yes, but besides the price, I see no reason for consumers to buy microsoft products. The average windows user will not pay $100 each year to write something in word or add a few things in excel. Apple is clearly focused on the consumer whereas Microsoft caters to the corporate world.

Absolutely - but I care how things affect me as

1. An Apple customer
2. An Apple shareholder

I'm not a Microsoft customer or shareholder, but if I were, I'd say that Apple's decision on OS X and iWorks has no impact on me. I agree that consumers don't want to pay $100 a year to subscribe to Office 365, so they won't. They're perfectly fine using whatever version they bought originally. At the same time, they're not going to throw out their Windows PCs and buy Macs either.

I just don't see Apple's move as having any impact on the Windows world.

 

[roadbloc]

...but you [the collective 'you' in reference to the general public] pay for superior quality products, something people readily admit in regards to trade tools and cars but oddly not in connection to computers; they want better quality computers but complain about paying more for it.

I was just saying I'd have preferred free a long time ago. But now is still great as I didn't think Apple would ever do it.

And when comparing Mac laptops to comparably spec'd Windows competition, the Mac falls in the middle - not including the AV that using Windows requires for 99.9% of the buyers.

Windows 8 comes with an inbuilt antivirus. And I don't think I have ever bought an antivirus in my life for my Windows PCs when there are plenty of free ones out there, including one from Microsoft.

OS X could cost money to upgrade, and I would gladly pay it. The software itself, in my opinion, is worth the price. That doesn't make me a stooge, a Cool-Aid drinker, or a marketing sucker - it makes me intelligent enough to buy what works for me personally without being swayed by something as mundane as cost: I buy myself a better quality product, and I pay more money for it. Fair is fair.

I never said it would make you a cool-aid drinker if you paid money for OS X. I've paid money for OS X with every release since Panther until Mavericks. All I was saying is that paying for it isn't very value for money, especially when Apple ditch support for their OSs pretty much right after releasing a new one, meaning if you want continued support off Apple, you had no choice but to buy the new OS. That is no longer the case since upgrades are free.

...the base Mac starts at £499 in the UK. I just saved you £501!

That is true... I forgot about the Mac Mini.

 

[mwa]

I was just saying I'd have preferred free a long time ago. But now is still great as I didn't think Apple would ever do it.

Windows 8 comes with an inbuilt antivirus. And I don't think I have ever bought an antivirus in my life for my Windows PCs when there are plenty of free ones out there, including one from Microsoft.

I never said it would make you a cool-aid drinker if you paid money for OS X. I've paid money for OS X with every release since Panther until Mavericks. All I was saying is that paying for it isn't very value for money, especially when Apple ditch support for their OSs pretty much right after releasing a new one, meaning if you want continued support off Apple, you had no choice but to buy the new OS. That is no longer the case since upgrades are free.

That is true... I forgot about the Mac Mini.

The assumption was mine about the Cool-Aid drinking - I wasn't meaning it in regards to your personal view.

 

[notjustjay]

I think it's like your local grocery store offering free coffee to people who shop there. Will that make a big dent in Starbucks' revenue? Probably not. Will entice people to shop for groceries more though.

 

[MacCruiskeen]

Dell, HP, Lenovo and all the other manufacturers, apart from Apple, are going to keep on including Windows on their machines because there's no other option.

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop

 

[NewbieCanada]

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop

One laptop, from one manufacturer, that you can't even order online, does not impact the accuracy of what I said.

 

[vvswarup]

I have iWork and Office I use iWork when I can but really I need to use office. Honesty Libreoffice seems to have better copatibility than iWork.

OP people have said the one thing or another has broken MS's back for many years it's yet to happen. I really don't want MS's back broken they do a lot of blue sky type reseach that apple is to greedy to de on their own. The world needs MS it doesn't need Apple.

When one says "one thing or another has broken MS's back," it doesn't necessarily mean that they're calling it good. That has nothing to do with it. It's the fact that Microsoft can't get its act together.

This thread is merely debating whether or not Apple's moves to release iWork and Mavericks free is bad for Microsoft. It has nothing do with if it's a good thing or a bad thing.