Will Microsoft and office survive?

[etad putta]

Looks like Google's taking a run at the "big man on campus"..Here's Google's plan to nab 80% of Microsoft's Office business | Business Insider

 

[rhapdog]

I read that several days ago. It's already part of another forum discussion. Google Docs was supposed to do the same thing.

MS Office is quite safe. People buy office for the compatibility, support, and advanced features. Otherwise, they go with OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Google entering the fray will mean little at this point. Office is going to be well entrenched in iPhone, Android, WindowsPhone, Mac, and Windows. Perhaps the 3 or 4 people that bought Chrome books will use Google's new solution.

 

[Maaz Mansori]

I read that several days ago. It's already part of another forum discussion. Google Docs was supposed to do the same thing.

MS Office is quite safe. People buy office for the compatibility, support, and advanced features. Otherwise, they go with OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Google entering the fray will mean little at this point. Office is going to be well entrenched in iPhone, Android, WindowsPhone, Mac, and Windows. Perhaps the 3 or 4 people that bought Chrome books will use Google's new solution.

I agree, and for those people who have been complaining about Microsoft releasing and updating Office on other platforms, maybe now you will understand why. They are not ignoring Windows. They simply want the updates to be released with Windows 10. I have to laugh at the article a bit. Basically it lays out Google's plan without any regard to what Microsoft is doing. It states that Google apps are cheaper "when factoring the costs for computer servers, storage, Windows licenses, and so on." Okay, first off, what business in their right mind are going to give up all their Windows servers and workstations just so that they can switch to Google Apps and have reduced functionality? What about all their other apps that require Windows? What about the increased bandwidth they may require to do everything on the cloud? And why does it fail to mention that Microsoft offers cloud storage too via OneDrive?

 

[JamesDax]

Yes.

 

[Blkacesvf41]

Microsoft's new strategy is starting to pay off. Both company and services are still relevant and are here to stay.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8025061/microsoft-is-spending-cash-to-reinvent-itself

 

[Christopher Kendalls]

Where is the competition? IDK. I tried to talk my wife into getting Office 365 and she said that at this piont Google Docs was good enough for her. I still like Office. I would run it on my Android if I had KitKat.

 

[tgp]

MS Office is quite safe. People buy office for the compatibility, support, and advanced features. Otherwise, they go with OpenOffice or LibreOffice. Google entering the fray will mean little at this point. Office is going to be well entrenched in iPhone, Android, WindowsPhone, Mac, and Windows.

I agree that Office is safe. It is by far the most full featured and capable office solution. But a big part of its "safety net" is that it's the incumbent. MS Office is what people have been using for many years. It's what they're used to, and it's a household name.

Where is the competition? IDK. I tried to talk my wife into getting Office 365 and she said that at this piont Google Docs was good enough for her. I still like Office. I would run it on my Android if I had KitKat.

You bring up a good point here. MS Office is touted as the most capable, which it is without a doubt. But few users use it to its full potential. iWorks and Google Docs are indeed "good enough" for almost everybody. It's by far the most convenient and natural to use whatever comes native; iWorks on iOS, and Google Docs on Android. This is where I believe Google has the best chance of making inroads with Docs. Not so much stealing Office users, but rather getting the new ones.

My wife is the same as yours. She has a Chromebook and an Android phone, and she uses Google Docs even though I have an Office 365 Home Premium subscription. Google Docs is native to her devices, and it is indeed good enough for her.

Yes.

I just have to say that I love your answers, here and in other threads. Short and to the point!

 

[Christopher Kendalls]

Office is just cleaner. It astonishes me the way in which Spell Check and Grammar Check are implemented on many of the quality productivity suites for Android, but Google does not have any issue in bringing those features to Docs. I suspect this is one of the reasons Microsoft developed Office for Tablets for KitKat and above.

Formatting has also been an issue, even on the Desktop, with some of the alternatives, although most suites do okay when the documents are actually saved in the .doc or docx format.

 

[Christopher Kendalls]

Docs on the Chromebook is probably better than Docs on the Android, as Chromebook as closer to desktop linux. Then again Chromebook is more like Windows RT than anything, so the apps there, while they do the job, definitely pale in comparison to anything you'll see on Windows 8.x Pro or Windows 10.

Don't get me wrong I have a 22 inch Android and I definitely use it as a desktop but older versions just aren't up to the task IMHO. Could be better with 5/Lollipop I'm not sure. I would love to see Chrome OS developed for the Phone but would be a conflict of interests for Google. But they could go that route if AOSP continues to grow and people continue to go the custom ROM route, which I actually hope happens because I'm not a fan of Google Play Services.

Mobile has changed the climate somewhat. Now we're in a "good enough" market, and that's where Google shines. A lot of these low spec Windows 8.1 with Bing computers for the budget crowd are preferable in my opinion but the market is overcrowded and Google did a very good job of advertising the Chromebook in 2013/2014.

 

[anony_mouse]

"Will Microsoft and office survive?"

What sort of timescales are you thinking about?

 

[jamesmas]

As long as they believes in innovation and leadership they will remain a mighty IT Force.

 

[Tsang Fai]

Perhaps Microsoft will not die before we die

But given the tough situation of Microsoft in the mobile market, it may "shrink" (in terms of market share, revenue, popularity, etc).

While Microsoft has a difficult situation in Windows Phone, I see good potential of Windows tablets, which can supplement the productivity need of existing iOS/Android users (they keep using iPhone/Android phone + Windows tablets). The future of Windows mobile is not that bad.

My guess is Office will be quite safe in the next 5-10 years. After 10 years, not sure.

Given the diversity of businesses of Microsoft (the majority of its revenue comes from the business sector), Microsoft will of course survive in the predictable future.

 

[mjyumping]

It think Microsoft Office products like word will survive as it has always have. Now they have reached office 2016

 

[tuck229]

I'm late to the party here, but just wanted to add a note to the thread for anyone stumbling upon it.
Google has done an amazing job grabbing users by the gobs for Google Docs, specifically in the education world. Microsoft was asleep at the wheel a few years ago, but they are doing a good job now at reclaiming their presence. Still, when it comes to ed tech, Google is golden in the eyes of the masses, and MS Office is no longer even present on some school campuses.


Just a quick observation. I teach high school. I'm seeing more students using Google Docs. I've always been a fan of Word but let students use what they like. In all honesty, you can hold up a paper/report and tell which ones were typed using Google. The formatting is all jacked up and, overall, they look like crap. This is new to me, as for years only MS Word was used in my school, and this didn't happen very often. Granted, not all Google Docs papers look bad, so I have to be fair there. But I am getting a growing number of stank-ugly looking papers turned it to me, and the bulk of them were typed using Google Docs.

 

[worldspy99]

I'm late to the party here, but just wanted to add a note to the thread for anyone stumbling upon it.
Google has done an amazing job grabbing users by the gobs for Google Docs, specifically in the education world. Microsoft was asleep at the wheel a few years ago, but they are doing a good job now at reclaiming their presence. Still, when it comes to ed tech, Google is golden in the eyes of the masses, and MS Office is no longer even present on some school campuses.


Just a quick observation. I teach high school. I'm seeing more students using Google Docs. I've always been a fan of Word but let students use what they like. In all honesty, you can hold up a paper/report and tell which ones were typed using Google. The formatting is all jacked up and, overall, they look like crap. This is new to me, as for years only MS Word was used in my school, and this didn't happen very often. Granted, not all Google Docs papers look bad, so I have to be fair there. But I am getting a growing number of stank-ugly looking papers turned it to me, and the bulk of them were typed using Google Docs.

And that is the reason why at least at work we don't use Google Docs, formatting is a big thing for us in our highly regulated industry where FDA says if you did not document it, you did not actually do the work!