Microsoft's Frank Shaw Slams Apple's Free iWork Software

[JD88]

...and us LibreOffice and Google Docs users just sit back and wonder what all the fuss is about.

This.

All this talk about offering free OS upgrades and office suites like it's something innovative. Linux and Google have been doing it for a very long time.

Come to think of it, when exactly was the last time Failsoft or Crapple innovated anything?

Not to be blunt but that is really really wrong. More recently Apple has slowed down innovation in performance and has really been focusing on design of the products and UI but that is still innovation. Also if you didn't know Visual Studio constantly gets huge updates, I mean sorry that you are stuck on code blocks but Visual Studio sets the standard for IDEs. Good luck trying to get it to run on Wine, the dependency trees and system integration makes it hard enough to install it on a secondary drive inside your computer and impossible on an external hard drive so unless you want to run VMs loaded up with "Failsoft" goodies you are out of luck on that. Microsoft also recently stepped up in security by putting hardware drive encryption via TPM modules required for Windows PCs soon. Microsoft and Apple took Xerox's idea for a GUI that they had worked up in their PARC facility and refined it then made it huge with the consumer market. If you really want to seperate yourself from "Failsoft and Crapple" stop using your Linux distro's GUI and either stick with CLI and let me know when you finish typing your response in VIM through an email via Alpine or Elm, or operate from a Xereox 8010 (which by the way was not UNIX based). For all the technical knowledge Linux/Open Source fanboys claim to have they fail to see that Linux and open source extra features and bells and whistles such as GUIs are borrowed technology.

Like I said. Nothing.

All you've done here is make excuses and point out a couple of niche products used by a very small portion of users.

You've also confused innovation with stagnation.

 

[clonazepam]

Some confuse innovation with some people sitting around trying to figure out how to make a new product look different from the last, and the competition, so that at face value, it appears to justify its existence, and a viable replacement for older products. Changing something because you need to change something so it appears to be changed isn't the same as innovation.

Now, swiping an object, finger, or pencil eraser, across the screen to cycle through a photo gallery was innovative. Seeing it in sci-fi film ages ago and coming to fruition was absolutely wonderful. I don't even care who do it. That detail doesn't make or break the point.

 

[ubercake]

Now if Apple would only let people install their Mavericks on the hardware of their choice (I doubt the OS is that robust) and dual boot, they would be a step closer to world domination.

 

[capt_taco]

This is not rocket science. If you're a hardware manufacturer, you build the cost of the OS and software into the price of the device. You can call it "free" if you want, but it's not. The same thing has been going on for 20 years if you buy a PC from Dell, HP, any of the major OEM - are Apple users really naive enough to fall for such blatant marketing-speak? (Wait, they already own Apple devices; I answered my own question.)

Here's a helpful reminder for anyone who's still not clear: With Apple, nothing is ever free.

 

[brucek2]

Windows runs on 90% of the worlds computers iOS 7%..Linux 1%. and 98% of them run Microsoft software. Even if Apple licensed it's software, which will never happen, I don't see it ever going above 10%. No need to down vote...facts work better.

That's no longer true if your definition of computer includes mobile devices, where iOS and Android are picking up significant share. One quick http-client report I just looked at had Windows share already down to 70%. The bigger concern of course is not today's total installed market share (which still reflects the legacy Windows dominance), but in what is happening in new sales. And there's plenty of reason there for MS to be concerned, with many buyers moving away from desktops and laptops where Windows still prevails, to tablets and phones where its so far been a whole new world.

 

[antilycus]

MICROSOFT is talking about NON CROSS PLATFORM?! is that a joke. They are worse than Apple when it comes to closed off..... okay actually I take that back. Only Microsoft could've out Microsoft out of business. Office 2013, Office 365, Window 8, Windows Server 2012, Visual Studio, F# (yes that's a language), XBONE... they are SOOO out of touch with what consumers want that they can't hold on forever. The only thing keeping them alive is the crappy programmers who rely on the IDE to do all the work for them.

 

[mmjanitor]

Apparently users are up in arms because the new iWorks has regressed/removed so much functionality.

Cant believe Apple have the cheek to try and spin the fact that they therefore had to make it free into a proposed selling point!

I took two long train journeys this week. Interesting that the iPad users were playing games, watching tv shows and reading.

The Windows users (almost exclusively laptops as cost/quality touch devices clearly are only just now coming through) were typically working in excel, word and outlook, coding, watching movies, and playing games.

This for me sums up a very scary change in the mobile competitive environment that Apple is facing in to.

 

[rishiswaz]

Apparently users are up in arms because the new iWorks has regressed/removed so much functionality.

Cant believe Apple have the cheek to try and spin the fact that they therefore had to make it free into a proposed selling point!

I took two long train journeys this week. Interesting that the iPad users were playing games, watching tv shows and reading.

The Windows users (almost exclusively laptops as cost/quality touch devices clearly are only just now coming through) were typically working in excel, word and outlook, coding, watching movies, and playing games.

This for me sums up a very scary change in the mobile competitive environment that Apple is facing in to.

This is basically it. It is not a bad thing, Apple is just targeting a casual user demographic that either doesn't know how to use or doesn't need some of the advanced features that other types of systems have. Someone who just checks email, goes on facebook, watches stuff on Netflix/Hulu/YouTube,and browses the web doesn't need anything more than an iPad and that is where Apple is really getting it right.

 

[ubercake]

MICROSOFT is talking about NON CROSS PLATFORM?! is that a joke. They are worse than Apple when it comes to closed off..... okay actually I take that back. Only Microsoft could've out Microsoft out of business. Office 2013, Office 365, Window 8, Windows Server 2012, Visual Studio, F# (yes that's a language), XBONE... they are SOOO out of touch with what consumers want that they can't hold on forever. The only thing keeping them alive is the crappy programmers who rely on the IDE to do all the work for them.

Microsoft has been talking about cross-platform with Xbox One and Windows devices. Also, devices and consumer sales are up 4% and business sales are up 10% compared to the same quarter last year, all while transitioning from a software to a services and devices company:

http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY14/Q1/default.aspx
http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/25652/microsoft-posts-record-profits-in-last-quarter
http://www.maximumpc.com/microsoft_posts_record_first_quarter_revenue_1853_billion_400_million_surface_sales
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/33575/microsoft-posts-5-2-billion-profit-says-surface-sales-are-growing/index.html

Do you honestly think a company that continues to profit like this even during such a transitional phase is that out of touch with its customers??? I don't think so. They may be out of touch with some of us, but it's obvious from the profits that most others are satisfied.

When you're on top, people are always trying to tear you down. MS can't let its guard down and must continue to keep a pulse on the needs of its customers, but I wouldn't say they are failing in any way.

 

[Stevied21]

Re percentage of world wide Window users, Yes the facts are correct, but you need to note that Mac OSX cannot be afforded in the third would where price is the only deciding factor. However the numbers are very much different if you look at North America only and in particular the percentage of change in the last five years. If you go looking for an Apple store in remote India where a prized commodity is a refrigerator you are going to look for a long time.

 

[pooflinger1987]

I really find it interesting that Microsoft is target iPad with their flagship PC's, suggesting to me that the best software Microsoft can produce to compete with Apple is only able to compete with iOS. iOS is nothing more than a very striped down barebones version of OS X. This just proves how powerful a Mac or Macbook really is.