Appleworks to take over Office on OS X

[springscansing]

Who thinks this is going to be a major, major update to Appleworks like some people are saying (the one coming in 3-4 months)? With relations going ice cold with Microsoft, and Microsoft not exactly showing much interest in developing future mac apps, do you think the new version of Appleworks is going to be designed to take over for Office on OS X? It's been rumored that Office compatibility is a "major concern."

 

[Cursor]

I think Appleworks is already a good, much cheaper alternative to M$ Orafice. With a few upgrades, it'll be a great alternative. I think Apple and M$ will distance themselves a lot in the upcoming months/years.

 

[buffsldr]

i recently started using appleworks. i dont mind it. it does lack the professional touch that os x has. it just seems so utilitarian. but hey, it came for free with my ibook

 

[Mr Jobs]

i think the next update will be a step towards it but still a while away from a compleat replacement. but i'm sure apple it think off it already on their drawing boards and should see the friuts of it in a year or two

 

[mads]

don't you think that the bar at the top of the word-window(where you can change fonts and text size) in appleworks looks a bit classic? it just doesn't look like aqua.

the bottom one too, by the way...

and why can you only undo once?
and why is it impossible to remove the borderlines in a table?

 

[solvs]

I just wish they'd put it on EVERY Apple computer. Towers and Ti Books. A small upgrade and polished interface would be icing on the cake. I'll bet they didn't want to put it on the high end Macs because they knew it would canabalize Office sales and p*ss off M$.

Bet they're not too worried about that now.

 

[sparkleytone]

look. things just arent as bad between m$ and Apple as the media would like to make out.

Yes, things are somewhat shaky in certain markets between them. Yes, they are both competing for the desktop market again, with Apple truly going after the m$ desktop jugular. No, I don't think Apple is going to go after them with Appleworks.

That would be an insanely stupid move. Right now Apple is touting one of the major bonuses of OS X as the power of UNIX with the ease of use and software support of a major desktop OS. Like it or not, M$ Office is the critical suite for desktop productivity in business. To lose this support would be a severe blow to the marketability of OS X. To deny this support would be an even worse blow. Appleworks would just be viewed as yet another proprietary and uniplatform solution and would directly negate their claims at interoperability. Apple needs M$.

Also, m$ needs Apple. This has been known for a while. M$ still needs to keep up the appearances that they are a good business citizen and that they are not abusing the monopoly powers that they so obviously have. As long as Apple can be a true competitor to them, it will be good for their image as a competitve business.

They will have their little fights, their pissing contests, etc. but they both need each other more than they will publicly admit. I think we will see that, even tho it looks worse and worse, we are going to see the same if not better software support coming out of m$. It just makes economical sense.