Apple beefing up iWork for BIZ, to compete against "Office 2013 for Mac & iOS"

[Jimmypoo]

This is going to require one hell of a lot of horsepower and formulaic changes to get into that realm.

If anyone has ever seen the extent to which Word can easily deal with TOCs, indexes, bibliographies and
the creation of scholarly works - to lose that software in a Ballmer fit of rage would hurt Macs a great deal.

Apple can’t hide/whine about monopolies now - and OpenOffice isn’t the “next” wave for business
(obviously) if Apple thinks businesses will purchase iWork for Mac & iOS — timed just as M$
readies a version of Office 2013 for iOS itself and the latest version for the Mac.

http://www.crn.com/news/applications-os/...killer.htm

[sekker]

JP - Pages is a fantastic and full replacement for word in the creation of scholarly works. It's fully compatible with Endnote and Papers, for example, for bibliographic creation. The latest Pages blows word out of the water as a page layout tool and the incorporation of figures with advanced graphics.

The only Office software I'm currently required to use is Outlook. And that's because we are still not fully converted over from 2003 Exchange servers (we're getting there). Apple Mail is just not as friendly with older Exchange server software as Entourage or Outlook.

[cbelt3]

... I don't see this. Cloud based ? Sounds like "Office 360".

Cloud apps for business ? Our business at least is shuddering at the security issues surrounding 'cloud hosting' and Windows 8's 'Windows Live' dependence is even more frightening. Expect a lot of push back.

Apple STILL doesn't play in the 'Enterprise' market. It's been an interesting strategy... or lack of same. Apple products show up in the big corporations mostly because the owners drag them in and force the big iron IT to 'use this cool thing'.

[Robert M]

Sekker,

There are two huge hurdles for Pages (and iWork as a whole): It's only available for the Mac and iOS and it doesn't provide 100% transparent compatibility with Office. Being able to open and save documents as a part of a conversion from format to format isn't the same as 100% transparent compatibility. Apple needs to get over both hurdles to even begin to loosen the hold Microsoft has with Office.

Robert

[onthedownlow]

Office (in a true Business/Enterprise/Educational environment) is integrated into so many things for authentication and other convenient features (e.g. SharePoint, Active Directory).

Just like Apple has produced a nice ecosystem within its products, so has Microsoft for the 'serious' user (read as 'not an individual' in one of the above environments) and to take on the champ and win is almost a futile effort - just as it is when somebody tries to go up against Apple and iTunes.

Everything helps (Apple), but they will likely never unseat the king.

[sekker]

onthedownlow wrote:
Office (in a true Business/Enterprise/Educational environment) is integrated into so many things for authentication and other convenient features (e.g. SharePoint, Active Directory).

Just like Apple has produced a nice ecosystem within its products, so has Microsoft for the 'serious' user (read as 'not an individual' in one of the above environments) and to take on the champ and win is almost a futile effort - just as it is when somebody tries to go up against Apple and iTunes.

Everything helps (Apple), but they will likely never unseat the king.

I'm not so sure. First the iPhone then the iPad has my very conservative organization re-thinking its long-term IT plans for the first time in 20 years. The bottom line is that the Docs that are in charge are finally feeling the frustration (using their new iOS toys) with the constraints of the microsoft environment that the Apple computer users have felt for years. This is MUCH more important than BYOP. Docs are writing software for the iPads; the iPads are now entering the waiting rooms.

Windows 8 does NOT have the same enterprise security that is provided now in iOS6. So even hardware from microsoft cannot compete in this space yet.

This really IS Apple's chance to change how enterprise deals with hardware. We'll see whether it's just a blip or a new vector in the next 12-18 months.