iWorks postponed? from Looprumors

[jholzner]

From Looprumors.com:
"We've heard information that Apple is considering postponing the release of iWorks as a result of Microsoft terminting development of Internet Explorer for the Mac. In just a few short months since Safari's introduction, Microsoft announced that it will discontinue development. Apple fears that the same will happen with Office, a program that is crutial to Apple's Switch campaign."

I'm not sure about this. I assume that Apple knew that MS would do this to IE after Safari and they didn't really care. I guess we'll have to wait and see...but I want iWorks! (but I hope they don't call it that).

 

[PowerBook User]

Re: iWorks postponed? from Looprumors

I think it would be good if Apple waited a while. Losing MS Office would be terrible for not only switchers, but also for people in an office environment. Plus, some people seem to think that sending an attachment in Word is fine since "everyone" has Word.

I'm not too surprised MS stopped IE. When did IE 5 for Mac come out? It was like 3 years ago.

 

[Ensoniq]

Apple never has been, and never will be, "afraid" of Microsoft.

Apple is happy that they've managed to keep Microsoft around for Office and IE as long as they have, because in the PC world, those two products are considered "standard".

However, every time Apple creates their own product to take on a specific task (iPod, iTunes, iDVD, Keynote, Safari, etc.), it always ends up being significantly better (cleaner and simpler, if not always as feature rich) as the competition.

If Apple is developing "iWorks", it will be able to read Word files. As long as a Mac user can view Word files, it doesn't matter what word processor they choose to use for themselves. We're no more tied to Microsoft Office than any other "standard" product out there. It's only the fear of being "incompatible" that continues to sell PCs in the numbers they enjoy.

There is nothing to fear from Microsoft. If they are even a little smart, they will be working their butts off to have the next version of Office be amazing, if they want to compete at all with what Apple's working on. And if they are REALLY smart, they will actually take Virtual PC and make it amazingly fast and compatible with Windows.

Because when the dual PPC 970s turn out to be the fastest machines available for a while, Microsoft would do well to have Windows run reliably on those machines...even in emulation.

-- Ensoniq

 

[jimthorn]

Microsoft didn't stop development on IE just on the Mac. They have stated that they have stopped developing new versions completely. There will be no new full versions of IE on any platform (no IE 6 on Mac, no IE 7 on Windows). Microsoft is focusing on MSN instead, which makes sense for them, since this actually generates revenue for them. Safari was not the reason for IE's demise on the Mac.

As far as iWorks being postponed so as to not "scare off" Microsoft's development of Office, this seems unlikely, since one can assume that Keynote is already a piece of the future iWorks project. As long as iWorks is compatible with Office, switchers can still be enticed to move to the Mac. I hope to see iWorks available by the time Panther hits the shelves, because AppleWorks is really looking tired next to all the other Mac apps.

 

[iJon]

if we lose office it will be a bad thing. we all know apple can make something better and cheaper, but will people who are moving to mac react to this. "do you have office" "well no, but we do have this great piece of software taht rivals it." even if the salesman says it will work with office, some people wont be so sure, may be a sales tactic. but if apple can prove to everyone that it is easy to use without using a brain to get it to work then i say go for it. keynote is great, but still lacks many useful features from powerpoint, but if their iworks is anything like keynote, it should be a great piece of software.

iJon

 

[jimthorn]

Originally posted by iJon
if we lose office it will be a bad thing. we all know apple can make something better and cheaper, but will people who are moving to mac react to this. "do you have office" "well no, but we do have this great piece of software taht rivals it." even if the salesman says it will work with office, some people wont be so sure, may be a sales tactic. but if apple can prove to everyone that it is easy to use without using a brain to get it to work then i say go for it. keynote is great, but still lacks many useful features from powerpoint, but if their iworks is anything like keynote, it should be a great piece of software.

Getting people to believe that iWorks is not only fully Office compatible, but also better, is simply a matter of a good advertising campaign on Apple's part. If you say on TV commercials, "works with Microsoft Office, but better" enough times, people will be convinced.

(It suddenly struck me as odd that I'm talking about iWorks like it's a real product, when we don't even know if such a project exists... )

 

[chicagdan]

Getting people to believe that iWorks is not only fully Office compatible, but also better, is simply a matter of a good advertising campaign on Apple's part.

Hate to say this, but I think that's wishful thinking on your part. MS is highly skilled at thwarting attempts at making competing office suites 100% compatible ... the latest being their pledge to use XML as the standard file format in the next Office, but an MS flavor of XML. Wanna bet StarOffice has problems with it?

I would feel VERY uncomfortable using an Apple suite instead of MS Office ... it's hard enough sometimes convincing my clients that it's okay for me to work on a Mac, using different software might completely freak some of them out and the first compatibility problem I run into would be the last.

 

[Thanatoast]

"works with Microsoft Office, but better" (courtesy of jimthorn)
(sorry no standard quotes, i'm on a pc which doesn't seem to like working with this site so well. )

That's a great tagline! Fire that one off to Apple!

 

[jimthorn]

Originally posted by Thanatoast
That's a great tagline! Fire that one off to Apple!

 

[FattyMembrane]

Originally posted by Ensoniq
Because when the dual PPC 970s turn out to be the fastest machines available for a while, Microsoft would do well to have Windows run reliably on those machines...even in emulation.

-- Ensoniq

if FWB's claims about RealPC are true, a top-of-the-line 970 may be the fastest windows machine as well.

it's high time for apple to sever all ties with ms. as linux takes off and "switchers" are abounding, it's a perfect time for a sharp departure, rather than weening people off of crapware. some people (unfortunately, far too few) are becoming more reliant on free or open software and becoming fed up with microsoft's antics.

if apple releases an office compliant suite and ms discontinues office development on the mac platform, there will be an initial blow of ignoramuses not understanding that you can view documents with more than one program and salesmen giving stupid answers to compatibility questions (that will never change), but once there is a full mac/win schism and apple is still standing, it will have much more clout in people's minds.

UPDATE: check out http://ranger.befunk.com/blog/archives/000072.html
for screenshots of koffice running natively on os x.

 

[pEZ]

There are already a ton of people out there that have decided that Microsoft doesn't make Office for the Mac. So why not make something compatible and say that Office-compliant software is built in? That would almost be easier.