Apple to release iWork for PC's

Do you think its possible?  After all they want to get more marketshare and to get their software used this just seems to be a natural progression.  Offer the suite free of charge or reasonably priced.  Port Mail and iCal to the PC and you have a pretty good alternative to Microsoft Office. 

rjdohnert wrote:



 to get their software used

In order to sell hardware. Apple's primary business is hardware, not software.

I believe the reason Apple port Safari over was for the developers to create apps for the iPhone.

littleguru wrote:



That's why they ported iTunes... Sell hardware.
They ported Safari only because they need a better support on internet sites for it.

I can't see them doing it.  The port of Safari certainly was a surprise to me, but trying to take on Microsoft Office would be unlikely I'd think.  Apple, even though it punches far above it's weight, isn't crazy.  My bet is that they'll continue to follow the now established pattern of targetting the home user/lifestyle segment, and the graphics pro/publishing sectors.  I don't imagine in Apple's wildest dreams do they see substantial penetration into the work-a-day PC/Microsoft arena.

I have to admit to being somewhat of an Apple fanboy (Lovingly strokes Macbook!!), but some of us straddle both camps and still manage to maintain a sane view on the world.

rjdohnert wrote:



Do you think its possible?  After all they want to get more marketshare and to get their software used this just seems to be a natural progression.  Offer the suite free of charge or reasonably priced.  Port Mail and iCal to the PC and you have a pretty good alternative to Microsoft Office. 

You can't really claim that iWorks comes anywhere close to Microsoft Office. It just doesn't do enough. And Apple Mail is not really that good IMO.

Having said that, iWorks does do enough for many home users, and it does it very well. I have no artistic talent whatsoever, and I have managed to produce stuff with iWorks that make folk whistle through their teeth and say:

'You did that?!'

If they ported it to Windows, then I think they would sell a boatload, and it would be a continuation of Apple's secret plan to skin Windows to look more and more like a Mac.

But as others have pointed out, how would this translate into hardware sales? Everything Apple does is done to sell more hardware. I suppose you could argue that if folk are used to seeing and using more Mac applications on their Windows machines, then they will be less nervous about buying a Mac the next time round, especially if they can still run Windows on it when they need to.

Dunno

I think that the more neutral or negative buzz that Vista gets, the more folks will look over at a Mac as a potential upgrade direction. Apple's integrated solution is a profitable business model saddled with far less legacy code to support. iWork is pretty cool, but I don't find it to be an adequate substitute for MS Office on the Mac.

Ray6 wrote:


You can't really claim that iWorks comes anywhere close to Microsoft Office. It just doesn't do enough.

Maybe not, but does it do the bits that most people use Office for? I'd argue that Pages does as much as I've ever seen most people do with Word, and Keynote is IMO (and the opinion of others I've shown it to) a lot better than PowerPoint.  I know nothing about Numbers so I can't really comment, nor Filemaker.

of course they could make iwork for pc becaus, iwork is competteble with microsoft office and other apple programms such as safari quicktime and itunes also can run on pc so why iwork not. you also know apple is a great company THEY CAN DO EVERYTHING ! unfortunately i don't think they are going to make iwork for pc because, i think that they think ''if you want to have the best programms apple makes you have to buy a apple computer.

I thought it is better to compare iWork with Window Live Apps? I mean, they just do mail, photo and video stuff. Office is for Office.

 

friso said:

of course they could make iwork for pc becaus, iwork is competteble with microsoft office and other apple programms such as safari quicktime and itunes also can run on pc so why iwork not. you also know apple is a great company THEY CAN DO EVERYTHING ! unfortunately i don't think they are going to make iwork for pc because, i think that they think ''if you want to have the best programms apple makes you have to buy a apple computer.

JESUS guys, THIS THREAD IS NEARLY THREE YEARS OLD!

rhm said:

friso said:

*snip*

JESUS guys, THIS THREAD IS NEARLY THREE YEARS OLD!

LOL crap, I got RickRolled again.!!!!!! Seriously, they should just have lock the thread. I don't want to keep checking the date, gawwwwsh.

magicalclick said:

rhm said:

*snip*

LOL crap, I got RickRolled again.!!!!!! Seriously, they should just have lock the thread. I don't want to keep checking the date, gawwwwsh.

The date of a thread is one of the first things I see when I'm reading something, I guess you need to train yourself for it; but I also recommend the C9 devs add a warning message if you attempt to resurrect an old thread.

 

Furthermore, this isn't rickrolling.

magicalclick said:

rhm said:

*snip*

LOL crap, I got RickRolled again.!!!!!! Seriously, they should just have lock the thread. I don't want to keep checking the date, gawwwwsh.

I don't think "rickrolled" means what you think it means. 

CannotResolveSymbol said:

magicalclick said:

*snip*

I don't think "rickrolled" means what you think it means. 

it might as well, you get that same "aw damnit" feeling whenever it happens

CannotResolveSymbol said:

magicalclick said:

*snip*

I don't think "rickrolled" means what you think it means. 

You know what I mean. Getting fooled.

magicalclick said:

CannotResolveSymbol said:

*snip*

You know what I mean. Getting fooled.

Well its actually more likely that they would release iWork for Windows now.

 

Since they have already announced special versions of iWork for the iPad supporting the same file formats as the Mac desktop version, and the iPad will work with Windows via iTunes like the iPhone.  They might well want people to be able to transfer and work with the same files both on the iPad and the PC.  If the iPad takes off in a big way, and iWork becomes the main set of productivity apps on the iPad, it makes sense to offer a desktop version of iWork to Windows users. So the iPad versions become their lever to take on Office on the desktop.

 

I guess there's nothing stopping Microsoft from developing iPad versions of Word and Excel to compete with the iWork apps on the iPad, 

they would probably have to start from the Mac desktop versions which are already Cocoa underneath, though the UI would have to be radically altered. I can't really see this happening in the short term though.

eddwo said:

magicalclick said:

*snip*

Well its actually more likely that they would release iWork for Windows now.

 

Since they have already announced special versions of iWork for the iPad supporting the same file formats as the Mac desktop version, and the iPad will work with Windows via iTunes like the iPhone.  They might well want people to be able to transfer and work with the same files both on the iPad and the PC.  If the iPad takes off in a big way, and iWork becomes the main set of productivity apps on the iPad, it makes sense to offer a desktop version of iWork to Windows users. So the iPad versions become their lever to take on Office on the desktop.

 

I guess there's nothing stopping Microsoft from developing iPad versions of Word and Excel to compete with the iWork apps on the iPad, 

they would probably have to start from the Mac desktop versions which are already Cocoa underneath, though the UI would have to be radically altered. I can't really see this happening in the short term though.

Microsoft has said (I forget where, though) that they have no plans to produce Office for iPad.

 

It wouldn't be easy, anyways:  Office for Mac actually still is not written in Cocoa.  Office 2010 (2011?  I don't remember what they're calling it) is supposed to include a Cocoa-based ribbon, but that's far from rewriting the whole application in Cocoa.