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iPad

Office for iPad has arrived, but does it still matter?

Michal Ždanský
25

Four years. It took four years for Microsoft to brought its Office suite to the iPad. After long delays and efforts to make Office a competitive advantage for Surface and other tablets with Windows RT, Redmond decided that it would be better to finally release the ready-made Office, which had probably been lying in an imaginary drawer for months. The company's current CEO, who probably understands the essence of Microsoft software better than Steve Ballmer, certainly played a part in this.

Finally, we have the long-awaited Office, the holy trinity of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The tablet version of Office has really hit the ground running, and Microsoft has done a great job of creating a touch-friendly office suite. In fact, it did a better job than the Windows RT version. All of this seems like reason to be happy, but is there anyone to be happy today except a minority group of corporate users?

Due to the late release of Office, users were forced to look for alternatives. There were quite a few of them. With the first iPad, Apple launched a tablet version of its alternative office suite, iWork, and third-party developers were not left behind. QuickOffice, now owned by Google, probably caught on the most. Another interesting alternative is its Drive directly from Google, which offers not only a relatively capable cloud office package with mobile clients, but also an unprecedented opportunity to collaborate on documents.

Microsoft itself forced the user to escape to alternatives with its bad strategy, and now it is trying to make up for its losses by releasing a version of Office for iPad at a time when more and more people are discovering that they don't actually need an expensive package for life and can get by with other software either for free or for significantly lower costs. Not that Office as such is bad. It is a very robust software with a number of functions and in a way the gold standard in the corporate sphere. But a large part of users can only do with basic formatting, simple tables and simple presentations.

From my point of view, Office is not my cup of tea either. I prefer to write articles Ulysses 3 with Markdown support, however, there are times when other applications, such as iWork, cannot completely replace Office. At the moment when I need to make an analysis from the available numbers and estimate future trends, work with a script for translation or use experienced macros, there is no other option than to reach for Office. That's why Microsoft software won't just disappear from my Mac. But what about the iPad?

[do action=”quotation”]There are more than enough alternatives here, and each of them means the departure of customers from Microsoft.[/do]

Office on the tablet requires an annual fee of CZK 2000 for editing and creating documents. For that price, you get a bundle on all available platforms for up to five devices. But when you already own Office for Mac without a subscription, is it worth the extra 2000 crowns to sporadically edit Office documents on a tablet when you can always do more comfortable work on a laptop?

Office 365 will definitely find its customers, especially in the corporate sphere. But those for whom Office on the iPad is really important probably already have a prepaid service. So Office for iPad may not attract many new customers. Personally, I would consider buying Office for the iPad if it was a paid application, at least for a one-time price of $10-15. As part of the subscription, however, I would overpay several times due to really occasional use.

A subscription model similar to Adobe and Creative Cloud is undoubtedly attractive to companies because it eliminates piracy and ensures regular income. Microsoft is also moving towards this lucrative model with its Office 365. The question is whether, apart from traditional corporate customers dependent on Office, anyone will be interested in such software, even though it is undoubtedly of high quality. There are more than enough alternatives, and each of them means customers leaving Microsoft.

Office came to the iPad with a huge delay and quite possibly helped people figure out that they could actually do without it. He came at a time when his relevance is rapidly fading. The tablet version of the exodus won't change users too much, rather it will ease the pain of those who have been waiting for it for years.

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