Another (this time, unsurprising) scoop by The Verge: “Office Mobile will debut in the form of free apps that allow Android and iOS users to view Microsoft Office documents on the move. Like the existing SkyDrive and OneNote apps, Office Mobile will require a Microsoft account. On first launch, a Microsoft account will provide access to the basic viewing functionality in the apps. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents will all be supported, and edit functionality can be enabled with an Office 365 subscription.” Smart move to get users to go subscription.
My long held vision of using my Nokia N800 as a desktop might finally come true: Samsung Note II + Jelly Bean + Office 365!
Too bad I had to wait long enough to realize that laptops are way better.
I knew that had to be the only way MS would do this. Their phone isn’t going to capture market share overnight nor will the Windows tablet like things take over the tablet market. If they aren’t careful someone else will take over the office app category for those devices, with the possibility to then spread to the desktop.
I still can’t understand why libre/open office hasn’t tried to fill that gap.
Because OOo’s build system was really messed up and LibreOffice inherited it. You can only compile natively, no cross-compilations. I should know, I tried to compile OOo for Maemo back in the day and switched to AbiWord once I learned this wasn’t possible (see first thread in the comments for this article).
If LibreOffice hasn’t fixed that yet, the very good question remains: why?
Because coding on Office clones for free is a rather boring way to spend your life I suspect.
The best software is written when the developers are filling a need they themselves have, but anyone who needs an Office suite can go out and buy Office. If LibreOffice comes up with some more innovative plan than being like Office, but free, and a bit more 2003, I doubt it will actually go anywhere without a lot of money to pay developers to work on it.
Well, I had a very real need to have a fully-fledged word processor on my Nokia N800 (see first thread in the comments for this article), which is what drove me to OOo and then AbiWord in the first place. Assuming that the build system hasn’t been fixed yet, I’m surprised that there hasn’t been a critical mass of OSS devs who have a similar need for their Android/iOS devices and haven’t fixed the system accordingly yet. Or maybe that mass exists but the build system is broken beyond repair.
They were working on something like that at the beginning of the year, don’t know how the port has progressed since though.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/02/libreoffice-developer-shows…
Microsoft is in an difficult position, for years they preached that the general public NEEDED MSOffice and Outlook on their computers. But the public decided otherwise and bought iPads, Macs and Android devices. Hundreds of milions of them, all without those “essential” Microsoft programs…and they found out they didn’t need them.
So, here comes plan B…sell Office to Android and iOS users…who have lived happily without MSOffice, why would they need out now?
OK, “viewing documents on the move” is a little far-fetched when you need an active Net connection to do so. You also have to pay a subscription to edit docs too!
So how is this better than the free/cheap Office document viewers/editors that are already out there on Android/iOS? Heck, I’ve already got two of them from Amazon UK’s Free App of the Day (Smart Office 2 and OfficeSuite Professional 6)…
Edited 2012-11-07 19:39 UTC
Better in the lines of Microsoft’s view point and interests – and for business’ wanting software that, you would think or wish, should have no issues at all working with Office Docs.
But as a general consumer that have options like the free Kingsoft Office mobile app and what you’ve mentioned above, who just wants to be able to read some documents or make an occassional document, not much there really.
“Yes, let’s pay that monthly subscription so that I can finally use my 4 inch smartphone to write 300-pages report with tables, graphics, footnotes and styles”
…. said no one
Whose need does this fulfil, apart from Microsoft shareholders’?
Edited 2012-11-07 22:38 UTC
If there are folks out there who want productivity software that’s governed by cell carrier-style contracts (complete with minimum terms of 1 year & early termination penalties), then Office 365 is a great choice.
Why do we need that afterall? My experience has told me that people who still stuck with MS Office nowadays are either a) slaved to use it, or b) incompetent to move on.
Edited 2012-11-08 00:55 UTC
Yes, Microsoft, please give us all another bill. That’s what we all want. We beg for it. </sarcasm>
I can’t help but think, each time I hear an announcement from Microsoft, that they keep losing just a bit more touch with reality as the days go by. This would benefit no one save Microsoft’s shareholders and, if people don’t go for it, not even them. The only market for this type of system might, and I do repeat might, be large businesses where the company pays for x amount of accounts and they are used on the company’s machines or tablets. Home users though? Forget it. Microsoft missed the boat on the home tablets, and they sure won’t reclaim most of them with a subscription system.
An account just to read a Word doc? Baloney.
Could someone inform me how another rumour confirms the existence of something? do people actually read the article linked because it is quite clear what the article said in the first paragraph:
That isn’t confirmation, that is rumour – confirmation would be Microsoft themselves coming out and announcing it formally.