Where Is Apple Headed?

[dsnort]

Looking at some of the new features in Leopard, and coorelating this to the rumored coming of a spreadsheet app for iWorks, I began to wonder. Where is Apple headed with all this?
As far as I know,( and that's not a great distance), M$ Office for Mac 2007 completes the agreement between M$ and Apple for Office availibilty for Mac. With the tighter integration of Mail, iCal, Addressbook, the new To-do function, and a spreadsheet app, could Apple be moving towards releasing a truly competitive productivity suite?
Is iWorks for PC a possibility?

 

[gauchogolfer]

One reason I can see for Apple not to release it to Windows machines is that part of the appeal of iWork is the integration with iLife. You can browse iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, etc, to import content into iWork projects. This obviously couldn't happen with PCs.

 

[MisterMe]

Looking at some of the new features in Leopard, and coorelating this to the rumored coming of a spreadsheet app for iWorks, I began to wonder. Where is Apple headed with all this?
As far as I know,( and that's not a great distance), M$ Office for Mac 2007 completes the agreement between M$ and Apple for Office availibilty for Mac.

Office 2007 is the Windows version of the suite. The Mac version is coming later, possibly much later. Apple and Microsoft have a new five-year agreement which went into effect in 2006, IIRC. This should take the current agreement out to 2010 or 2011. However, this is not why Microsoft develops Office:mac. The Macintosh version of Office is extremely profitable for the Redmond Monopoly. By selling Office:mac, Microsoft generates badly needed funds for its bottomline. It also acts as a barrier to other potential developers who might consider filling the void if Microsoft left.

With the tighter integration of Mail, iCal, Addressbook, the new To-do function, and a spreadsheet app, could Apple be moving towards releasing a truly competitive productivity suite?
Is iWorks for PC a possibility?

How many times do we have to beat this dead horse? While it is true that many of Apple's MacOS X applications will serve perfectly well all of many Office:mac's users' needs, they are not intended to replace Office for users who actually need it. And for Pete's sake, Apple is not the only MacOS X developer in the world. Go to VersionTracker.com and MacUpdate.com to check out the thousands of freeware, shareware, and commercial titles available for MacOS X. You will find great products from dedicated developers who deserve your business.

 

[dsnort]

How many times do we have to beat this dead horse? While it is true that many of Apple's MacOS X applications will serve perfectly well all of many Office:mac's users' needs, they are not intended to replace Office for users who actually need it. And for Pete's sake, Apple is not the only MacOS X developer in the world. Go to VersionTracker.com and MacUpdate.com to check out the thousands of freeware, shareware, and commercial titles available for MacOS X. You will find great products from dedicated developers who deserve your business.

Easy now, didn't mean to set off any blood pressure monitors! Fairly new to Mac, haven't seen this discussed in detail before, so this this my first blow on the "dead horse".
All I'm saying is that Apple seems to be inching closer to the type of functionality of the M$ apps.
The Office and Exchange apps generate a lot of cash for M$. I think it would be silly to think that Apple hasn't even considered trying to get a slice of that pie!