Microsoft Office Heading to iPad
Microsoft Corp. has unveiled an iPad version Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Led by its new CEO Satya Nadella, this reflects a bold shift in Microsoft's strategy away from focusing so heavily on its own PC operating systems, Surface, and smartphones. From Bloomberg:
Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said he will “hold nothing back” to get the company’s programs across all devices, in a clear departure from the software maker’s longtime focus on its Windows operating system.At his first public speech since taking the CEO job last month, Nadella unveiled Office software for Apple Inc.’s iPad, the first time Microsoft is putting the popular productivity programs onto the tablet. Nadella also said the company’s goal is to get its Internet-based Office 365 service on any gadget, even if it reduces sales of Windows-based personal computers or other products.
We all know that the business world lives in Microsoft Office, from models in Excel and slide decks in PowerPoint. For those monkeys who have had trouble achieving consistency through their computers, tablets, and smartphones, what does this mean to you?
This is potentially a huge opportunity for Microsoft to gain revenue through the already huge customer base of iPad tablets and Android smartphones, but also signifies the failure of Microsoft's own Surface tablet and Windows smartphones. What does this mean for the future of Microsoft and its Office products?
Thoughts monkeys?
Word and Excel are IMPOSSIBLE to use on an iPad for any sort of professional use.
Taking notes, making a simple budget - fine. But Microsoft knows companies can't replace desktops with iPads. Good move by MS.
That isn't totally the point; MSFT is providing another outlet for their Office 365 platform to grow. They need to compete with the Google ecosystem and grab market share from services like Box and create a "new standard" for mobile computing.
Fact is that Office for iPad is unusable for creating, say, a 3-statement model with DCF + links to comps, etc. But it won't be in the future, and Microsoft needs to be in the right position by then. They want to start working on the Windows 3.1 of the tablet era as well as make their Office apps the go-to.
I've been following this for some time and have anticipated the release for a while as well.
Let's look at underlying computer hardware tech trends first:
This means 1 thing for software companies: mobile services are increasingly easy to provide.
Services like Amazon AWS, Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, Box, Google Drive are all made possible through the cheapening of storage tech. Add in huge computing power and you get servers that can virtualize user instances and provide things like multi-user editing in files (Box, Google Drive, OneDrive), and phones that can do everything a computer can (see: every smartphone released past 12 mos). Add things like gigabit ethernet/LTE and the ongoing DRM issues from content providers and it's clear that life would be far, far easier to tech companies to keep services/software/content on their end as opposed to giving it to the user.
Eventually, that's where computers will go. We'll just own licenses or have temporary use rights to software/content, which is the way it has always been but with one important exception - we won't control the medium. Big win for providers, potentially "meh" for consumers.
What this means for a company like MSFT, which has always been about the content it provides (Windows, Office, enterprise solutions like Dynamics and Windows Server) is that it can now free itself from a huge shackle - hardware - at the cost of potentially exacerbating the inevitable decline of the consumer PC operating system.
I'm confident in Nadella's ability to lead MSFT as a company that doesn't just ride its past successes. This is the first step of many to create a new Microsoft that is integrated across its product lines - Windows, Windows Phone, Office, Outlook.com, etc. Eventually these things will all become modular segments of a single ecosystem.
I'm a bit tired so I hope this makes sense.
Can I F5 Alt+SOXE on the iPad?
I think this is a good first step for MSFT. The long term play is to figure out how to replicate the desktop experience on a tablet. Since their tablets have few users they can't get a good sample size for how things are going. Moving to iPad is a good step for them.
I knock them for forcing the $99 Office365 subscription. If I am emailed an excel spreadsheet for review I'd like to open it without having to pay for the service. As I understand it you can't use the app without the service. Bummer.
You can use the app in read-only mode for free.
"On the iPad, anyone can download the app and use it to read and present Office documents. But only people with an Office 365 subscription can create and edit documents." from http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/03/27/microsoft-announces-office-for-i…
That's good to know! Thanks!
I think Office for ipad is useful resource for a certain type of users that i would label as entry to mid level Office users. I can assure you that almost none of the folks that represent the community on this site will find any use for this though. Ipad is a content consuming device whereas MS Excel, for instance, is a content creating software. So there is is a misalignment right from the beginning.
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