as our R&D department. Why spend the money when somebody else is out there doing the work....


Did I say that?

"That's because outside of Apple itself, Microsoft sells more software for Apple's flagship Macintosh computers than any other company."

I am pretty sure that this statement is NOT correct. I know that outside of Apple, Microsoft has more Mac developers than any other company. However, the only product they sell for Mac is Virtual PC and Office, right? Surely Adobe must sell more Mac software than Microsoft. I don't know if they mean they OFFER more mac products or SELL more mac software. Either way, I can't see either being true.

Even though I work in an educational enviroment and get a substantion discount for M$ Office, I still prefer NeoOffice on my personal laptop.

I don't trust Bill Gates, even if he did partner with Apple for the Bob Dylan documentary.

"However, the only product they sell for Mac is Virtual PC and Office, right? Surely Adobe must sell more Mac software than Microsoft."

Adobe sells a heckuva lot of software, but you forget that those who need general office apps FAR outnumber those who do graphics enough to justify buying the expensive Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign apps. Word is used by just about everybody, and Excel by just about every business. Adobe can't sell to every business except maybe Acrobat.

It will be interesting to see what iWork '06 will give us. Considering iWork is the replacement to AppleWorks, we still need a spreadsheet and simple database component. With those things released, is there really a need for Office anymore?

...As this will help offset all the losses in the XBox division, which the Mac Businesss Unit is a part of.

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Guest wrote:
It will be interesting to see what iWork '06 will give us. Considering iWork is the replacement to AppleWorks, we still need a spreadsheet and simple database component. With those things released, is there really a need for Office anymore?

I love Pages and Keynote but iWork has a long way to go as far as features and ease of use in order to be a MS Office replacement.

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...As this will help offset all the losses in the XBox division, which the Mac Businesss Unit is a part of.

Is this accurate? The Mac business unit is part of the Xbox division? If so, then it would explain the recent claims about the Xbox making money for MS.

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ericl wrote:

I love Pages and Keynote but iWork has a long way to go as far as features and ease of use in order to be a MS Office replacement.

I have to agree here. I happen to own both Office for Mac AND iWork. I find myself using them now on about a 50/50 basis but only after much "playing" with iWork. I use it EXCLUSIVELY however when dealing with documents or presentations involving graphics or video, but I think it has some maturing to do.

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ericl wrote:

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Guest wrote:
It will be interesting to see what iWork '06 will give us. Considering iWork is the replacement to AppleWorks, we still need a spreadsheet and simple database component. With those things released, is there really a need for Office anymore?

I love Pages and Keynote but iWork has a long way to go as far as features and ease of use in order to be a MS Office replacement.

Since when has MS Office been easy to use?

Word, in particular, has been a pain-in-the-ass to use since 6.0. Needlessly so, btw.

Perhaps familiar is a better word to use. I am more familiar with Word overall, mainly because I have been using it since the early days of the Mac. With each "upgrade" to word, i have "upgraded" my knowledge of the program and learned how to work around the bloat. Admittedy, Pages doesn't have the bloatware that word does. It isnt as "intuitive" for me as word though, and I think it is a combination of my familiarity with Word an Pages' need to mature some in terms of interface. Just my $0.02

I really don't think Pages is going for the WP market at all - like you I have both iWork and Office installed. (And NeoOffice - and I'm sorry, NeoOffice and OpenOffice both suffer from taking MS Office as their feature reference point while being slower).

The templates provided with Pages pretty much give it's purpose away, and it works very well at that sort of presentation document (to my mind, it is a counter-point to Keynote - a tool for sales people).

I'm sure they will release a spreadsheet capability (most likely Numbers as rumored) but I'm hoping they don't get into a feature race with Office, and keep the market differentiation.

Of course, most people don't really need Office (most of what's been in since Office 97 has been collaboration features, which most home and small businesses don't use or need).