Microsoft Kisses Up To Tim Cook In Front Of Millions

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Demonstrating Microsoft Office apps running on the Apple iPad Pro is considered kissing up to Apple?

Yesterday, before as many as 7,000 people at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco and untold numbers watching online, Tim Cook unloaded reams of hyperbole about some Apple technology that isn’t all that different from the Apple technology we already have. Other executives offered their own extravagant enthusiasms. Then One Republic played some songs.
 
People forget MS is a software company at its core, and that at one point vyed for software supremacy with the likes of Apple. Now Apple makes consumer gadgets and a few computers.
 
Microsoft is a business ... and a very good business after the departure of Balmer ... Vendettas make bad business (that was one of Jobs traits and seems to have diminished with his demise) ... Now that Microsoft is giving away Windows 10, that makes Office their new cash cow ... getting Office (which is superior to all of their competitors) onto as many platforms (and supporting it there) is key to Microsoft's industry leadership and domination (at least until we switch into the world of immersive computing in the future)
 
MS owns a substantial portion of Apple stock. Expecting them to not have a version of Office for iOS is silly.

I guess the "news" here is that someone from MS showed up at an Apple event. Meh.
 
PantherBlitz said:
MS owns a substantial portion of Apple stock. Expecting them to not have a version of Office for iOS is silly.

I guess the "news" here is that someone from MS showed up at an Apple event. Meh.
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Didn't they sell off all their Apple stock over a decade ago? All they seem to own now is a tiny percentage of stock through an investment fund.
 
I can imagine the Microsoft rep was thinking where's the freaking touchpad/mouse because moving your hand to screen thousands of time a day will get old.
 
kbrickley said:
Microsoft is a business ... and a very good business after the departure of Balmer ... Vendettas make bad business (that was one of Jobs traits and seems to have diminished with his demise) ... Now that Microsoft is giving away Windows 10, that makes Office their new cash cow ... getting Office (which is superior to all of their competitors) onto as many platforms (and supporting it there) is key to Microsoft's industry leadership and domination (at least until we switch into the world of immersive computing in the future)
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Microsoft is giving Windows 10 away? NewEgg sells Microsoft Windows 10 Home - 32 or 64-bit OEM for $99.99; Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 32 or 64-bit OEM for $139.99; Microsoft Windows 10 Home - Full Version for $139.99; Windows 10 Pro - Full Version for $199.99.

Microsoft isn't giving away Windows 10. Businesses, OEMs, System builders, and home users all have to pay for Windows 10. Microsoft is offering free upgrades to users for a limited time with a qualifying copy of Windows 7/8/8.1.
 
Did Tim Cook say that no one knows productivity like Microsoft? I wondered if Apple fans (or Linux/FOSS fans) took issue with that.
 
In the past, Microsoft used to make hardware for Apple computers. They made addon cards for Apple computers.
 
rigurat said:
In the past, Microsoft used to make hardware for Apple computers. They made addon cards for Apple computers.
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Weren't those add-on cards basically an IBM-PC on a card so that the Apple could run PC software?
 
ccman said:
Did Tim Cook say that no one knows productivity like Microsoft?....
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I never seen this video/article but i'd hazard a guess at it meaning Productivity Software. not necessarily great productivity WITH its software. lol They did bring out the Ribbon after all (a UI that fundamentally *requires* more clicks then previous UI's). I hope.... ;)
 
HoffY said:
I never seen this video/article but i'd hazard a guess at it meaning Productivity Software. not necessarily great productivity WITH its software. lol They did bring out the Ribbon after all (a UI that fundamentally *requires* more clicks then previous UI's). I hope.... ;)
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The ribbon requires more clicks? Sure. Guess it's a good then the device that Microsoft was demoing that particular version of Office on doesn't support mice.
 
I quite like the Ribbon. I customize most of our workers Ribbons so they only have access to certain abilities preventing them from messing up 90% of our products or getting confused and asking me for help (instead of using google/bing/youtube).

Personally I have never had an issue with the Ribbon in all the other products other than Outlook. I've since gotten used to it in 2010, I hope to upgrade to 2013 pretty soon.
 
Trimlock said:
I quite like the Ribbon. I customize most of our workers Ribbons so they only have access to certain abilities preventing them from messing up 90% of our products or getting confused and asking me for help (instead of using google/bing/youtube).

Personally I have never had an issue with the Ribbon in all the other products other than Outlook. I've since gotten used to it in 2010, I hope to upgrade to 2013 pretty soon.
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There's just no way that a UI that's been around for eight years, spanning multiple form factors and clients which on September 22nd will see its appearance in the fourth version of Office for desktop Windows, Office 2016, can possibly be anywhere as bad on the desktop as some claim.
 
heatlesssun said:
There's just no way that a UI that's been around for eight years, spanning multiple form factors and clients which on September 22nd will see its appearance in the fourth version of Office for desktop Windows, Office 2016, can possibly be anywhere as bad on the desktop as some claim.
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I think the Ribbon is going to stay, what will change is most likely the over all layout. We've already seen some pretty drastic changes with the 2013 versions which really only kept the ribbon some-what the same.
 
Zepher said:
Weren't those add-on cards basically an IBM-PC on a card so that the Apple could run PC software?
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I'm not sure what it's true purpose was. I thought it was addon card to expand the memory of the old Apple computer.

They also made this:

http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/300240/the-secret-history-of-microsoft-hardware/7

294396-microsoft-macenhancer-1985.jpg


Microsoft was a big supporter of the Macintosh platform back in the 80's. This device was so Mac computers can use PC peripherals.
 
heatlesssun said:
The ribbon requires more clicks? Sure. Guess it's a good then the device that Microsoft was demoing that particular version of Office on doesn't support mice.
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Trying to get your post count up? I don't understand if there was a point intended here? you answered you're own question... (with the point i made in the first place). o_O
 
More clicks or not, the whole reason for the ribbon is to make it easier to discover things the program can do, which it does nicely.
 
HoffY said:
Trying to get your post count up? I don't understand if there was a point intended here? you answered you're own question... (with the point i made in the first place). o_O
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Ryokurin said:
More clicks or not, the whole reason for the ribbon is to make it easier to discover things the program can do, which it does nicely.
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I've not used Office 2003 in like 5 years. But I just don't feel like the ribbon in Office 2013/2016 (they are pretty much the same, been using 2016 Preview personally for a while now) is significantly less efficient and as Ryokurin points out, it's easier to find things. Plus the ribbon and context menus are very interactive, changes can be easily previewed before making them reducing the need to go back and forth into a menu only to undo the change and have to do back into the menu.

If this UI was so bad there's just no way it would have been around this long and implemented in very version in Office for the better part of a decade now.
 
Office is one of Microsoft's most profitable products, and has run on Apple operating systems for years...

Apple's most-popular OS has transitioned from OSX to iOS, moving Office on over to iOS makes perfect sense if they want to extract the most cash possible from Apple users.
 
And the Ipad Pro was a huge tribute to the Surface. It is heartening to find that two tech giants can manage to interact proactively together. I don't think one dominated the other, they simply showed something together to enhance end users' lives. Users get to decide if it is genuinely useful or not with their purchases.
 
Ryokurin said:
More clicks or not, the whole reason for the ribbon is to make it easier to discover things the program can do, which it does nicely.
Click to expand...

i've always found the Ribbon to be a step backwards when it come to feature discover-ability.

Something to do with the forced extra click(s) one *has* to do to get to the majority of commands because they are hidden behind other tabs (and in most applications that use it, are very severely lacking in commands that have an actual ribbon button and low and behold, either no functional pull-down menu's or a completely butchered one to try discover them).

I have been over these discussions with people in software development in with design software company's and at the end of the day, they couldn't dispute the claims. Their only answer was "well we need a new paint job to woo new buyers, screw the current customers".
 
HoffY said:
Something to do with the forced extra click(s) one *has* to do to get to the majority of commands because they are hidden behind other tabs (and in most applications that use it, are very severely lacking in commands that have an actual ribbon button and low and behold, either no functional pull-down menu's or a completely butchered one to try discover them).
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Can you provide an example of these "extra clicks"?
 
Unknown-One said:
Office is one of Microsoft's most profitable products, and has run on Apple operating systems for years...

Apple's most-popular OS has transitioned from OSX to iOS, moving Office on over to iOS makes perfect sense if they want to extract the most cash possible from Apple users.
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That's the part that people who use iOS that don't use OSX might not realize. (Office for Mac came out in 1989) Office has been on Mac longer than it has been on Windows. It's not a stretch to have them promoting their product even though they are competitors as it still is helping both of their bottom lines.
 
PantherBlitz said:
MS owns a substantial portion of Apple stock. Expecting them to not have a version of Office for iOS is silly.

I guess the "news" here is that someone from MS showed up at an Apple event. Meh.
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MS owns less than .001% of Apple stock. At one time they did buy about 25% shares, mostly to get their software on Apple products and avoid anti-trust litigation. They figured it was good for them, because they produced products other than just an OS and were not in the hardware business. MS has since sold all that stock long ago (2003) and the $3 billion Apple company has become a $505 billion company. MS likely made a good profit from their shares, but ultimately that deal hurt them. However, it is hard to say what would have happened if they didn't save Apple.

As for people being shocked that MS is unveiling Office for iPad, I don't see why... There really is no reason for a software company to limit themselves to one product or platform. This is also why MS is so keen on moving to Office 365, so it can be more platform independent. MS also has a huge investment in cloud computing in general and wants to be able to roll that out to as many platforms as possible. The only area they aren't as keen on moving into is Linux, which they have good reasons for and its not because they feel Linux is a true competitor. It is because they feel the support needed would be far greater.
 
bman212121 said:
That's the part that people who use iOS that don't use OSX might not realize. (Office for Mac came out in 1989) Office has been on Mac longer than it has been on Windows. It's not a stretch to have them promoting their product even though they are competitors as it still is helping both of their bottom lines.
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The wrinkle here is that Office on the iPad Pro would seem to be competeing with the Surface Pro and weakening the argument for the Surface Pro as the tablet for productivity.
 
heatlesssun said:
The wrinkle here is that Office on the iPad Pro would seem to be competeing with the Surface Pro and weakening the argument for the Surface Pro as the tablet for productivity.
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The iPad Pro can only run the limited mobile version of Office (which doesn't actually include the entire range of Office applications, just a subset), while the Surface Pro can run the full-blown desktop suite.

Doesn't weaken the argument for the Surface Pro at all, just means Microsoft can begin to capture more iOS users (and, ideally, leave them wanting an even BETTER Office experience, which they can find on a Surface Pro tablet).
 
Unknown-One said:
The iPad Pro can only run the limited mobile version of Office (which doesn't actually include the entire range of Office applications, just a subset), while the Surface Pro can run the full-blown desktop suite.

Doesn't weaken the argument for the Surface Pro at all, just means Microsoft can begin to capture more iOS users (and, ideally, leave them wanting an even BETTER Office experience, which they can find on a Surface Pro tablet).
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I would agree. However Apple gets a lot of good press and just as soon as the iPad Pro was announced before anyone had even bothered to look at it, the Verge had this article up: Microsoft demonstrates Office on iPad Pro, giving the world one less reason to buy a Surface: http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/9/9295985/microsoft-office-ipad-pro-demonstration. In fairness the mobile version might be all that one needs, most of the important stuff is there. But there's tons that's not. It's not a full laptop/desktop replacement.

I think this is where the iPad Pro will have the same problems as any mobile OS tablet has had before trying to be a laptop replacement. Yes, it can do many things a laptop does, but not nearly everything.
 
The "news" is the iPad Pro. Office has been on iOS for years.
 
mope54 said:
The "news" is the iPad Pro. Office has been on iOS for years.
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Yes, but this is the iPad Pro and apparently Apple thought that being able to demo that with split screen and a pen was important to a device they are calling "Pro". What was kind of interesting about that demo is that they didn't demo the keyboard cover while using Office, a much more likely scenario than using it with a pen I'd think.
 
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