eeePC becoming a bigger competition...

[mkrishnan]

Windows Mobile devices all offer Pocket Word and Excel so I think Apple is missing a trick here in promoting their own product.

I have mixed feelings about that... it'd be nice to have basic ability to view Word/Excel/PPT attachments (particularly Word and PPT, and of course PDF), but at the same time, I think it's worth it to remember how much better Apple does with the market than those Windows Mobile devices. Of the two strongest smartphone companies at this point, at least in North America (RIM and Apple), neither of them really stress these kinds of features, and yet, particularly in the case of RIM, they have consistently for some time dominated the market.

 

[aristobrat]

Windows Mobile devices all offer Pocket Word and Excel

Microsoft does now, but if you bought a Windows Mobile Smartphone the first year or two that they were out, you had to use a third-party application just to be able to VIEW Office files.

Remember WestTek ClearVue Office Viewer on the Moto MPx200?

From what I've noticed, Apple's pretty good about using synergy between its products. I wouldn't be surprised to see iWork on the iPhone at some point, once they get everything iPhone-wise settled down.

 

[weckart]

I am curious to see how on earth you could realistically work on a spreadsheet on the iPhone.

To be perfectly honest, this is where you really would benefit from a stylus.
Even surfing on my iPod Touch is a pain. Particularly Macrumors. There are so many hyperlinks on the main page that the act of scrolling is made that much more difficult. I rarely get halfway down the page before I get shunted off somewhere or other.

 

[Foxglove9]

I waited for a tiny computer from Apple but it never came so I just bought the 7" Asus EEE PC 4GB model (only $300). It's really nice looking and everyone who see's it loves it. It's small enough I can toss it in my bag and bounce it around and not worry about anything happening to it.

But I tell you, I really really miss OS X, it makes such a huge difference in using a computer. I was able to transfer my Safari bookmarks and Address book over so that was nice.

But my Macbook is still my pride and joy

 

[a456]

I thought Apple were trying to increase the appeal of iWork and encourage people to migrate from Microsoft Office but, just as Office is bundled with new Macs, it could very well be a possibility that Office becomes an option on the iPhone before iWork does. Windows Mobile devices all offer Pocket Word and Excel so I think Apple is missing a trick here in promoting their own product.

Although I would like iWork to be an alternative to MS Office, it is unfortunately not. I think OpenOffice is the real heavyweight competitor there. But while MS have made a mistake in not including VB macro support with Office 2008, if they can sort this out then it will remain the de facto standard in the world where Windows and Macs need to work together: it is the Photoshop of Wordprocessors.

 

[aristobrat]

But while MS have made a mistake in not including VB macro support with Office 2008, if they can sort this out then it will remain the de facto standard in the world where Windows and Macs need to work together: it is the Photoshop of Wordprocessors.

IMO, there are always going to be "power users" that have specific "Office" needs only met by Photoshop (Microsoft Office), but for the majority of the masses, Photoshop Elements (iWork) is more than adequate to get the job done.

 

[weckart]

But while MS have made a mistake in not including VB macro support with Office 2008, if they can sort this out then it will remain the de facto standard in the world where Windows and Macs need to work together: it is the Photoshop of Wordprocessors.

Microsoft is dropping VBA completely from the next iteration of Office for Windows, so don't hold your breath. It fell from Office 2008 because porting it over would have held the already delayed launch date back even further. Nobody at Microsoft is working on adding it back - all of Microsoft's focus is now on .NET.