Just for heck of it recently I started trying to use pages / sheets n mail on my macbook I know maybe it’s because I’m Microsoft guy but they seem like un usable compared to office not as smooth as office jumping between mail n pages pain
Outlook has more features
Sheets can’t hold candle to excel
I really love my Mac but to get work done I need office
Even open office on mac better then pages n sheets
xperiencewindows
<p>I agree. Office is arguably Microsoft's strongest product. Use pages or sheets if you have no other choice.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#265026"><em>In reply to paul-thurrott:</em></a></blockquote><p>Most people don't have any use for most of Office's more sophisticated capabilities, but many people find some of those capabilities to be essential. For some people anything beyond notepad is bloated, it just depends on an individual's needs.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#266113"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>Your arguments would be more convincing if you actually cited a random sampling of white collar workers rather than just speculating on what the results would be if such a sampling took place.</p>
RR
<blockquote><a href="#265026"><em>In reply to paul-thurrott:</em></a></blockquote><p>The main point is the network effect. Its not that everyone who has all these capabilities use them, but that they communicate with those who do, and in order to assure that this communication is always smooth, you need to have what those people have, for the most part. The other side of the equation is once Microsoft or anybody else produces this software for the most sophisticated user, it costs nothing to distribute, so it is an illusion that "I don't need all this stuff in front of me". </p><p>You are part of a(n) (extended) network in which the most extreme users do use it, and they communicate with you through this software now and then. The real "problem" creating the disonance is the pricing model which is also an illusion. As a very rough illustration, if they would give copies of Excel to enterprises, on a value add basis, maybe, they ought to charge their top 1% users $10MM each, and the remaining 99% $1, or something really odd like that, but in order to make it simpler, avoid sticker shock etc, they charge each user $10 or whatever (yes, I know they have add-in pricing too). </p><p>On the margins they find some ways to address this (and respond to competition) by providing education discounts, freeware versions with mobile, etc. </p><p>But no, productivity isn't a commodity. You have a better argument saying the OS is a commodity. Don't make the mistake of thinking companies like Google will be able to hang in there forever subsidizing users while probably losing steadily on products. Every company has their day of reckoning when they will drop stuff that aren't working and focus on things that make sense. Google hasn't really had a real bad patch yet, the internet growth, and later mobile is still carrying them forward, and what usually happens in long periods of prosperity like that is some things that are not really value add will have been carried along (I would bet freeware/low cost on productivity is one of those). </p><p><br></p>