Most of us witnessed Apple’s invasion of corporate America. A wide range of executives, power users and recent graduates have hit the work scene with their own iPhone, iPad and Macbooks or required that their companies purchase some of these items. Several well-known companies have rolled out thousands of iPads to entire divisions within their companies. Liquid Networx has observed this first hand, prompting us to reevaluate our policies and support procedures.
Let me share my own personal experience. An early adopter of the iPad and iPhone, I decided to experiment with a Mac Air last year—the hardware was just too tempting to pass up. A number of colleagues. and occasionally even customers, were asking if you could really run off a Mac for business without using a Windows Virtual Machine on the device. Excellent question. After living off of the Mac Air for about 18 months while using a range of other devices and platforms, I have advice for both Microsoft which is facing the brunt of my frustration and for Apple which is close behind.
The Now
I’ll start with the good, the bad and the ugly with Microsoft. On the pro side, from my Mac Air I’ve had zero problems sharing files with PC users utilizing recent versions of MS Office. Microsoft has made great strides in ensuring the file formats normally work without a hitch. Linking into SharePoint also works with relative ease. The only major “gotcha” (which isn’t Microsoft’s fault) is that many of the add-ons such as document management products and file comparison utilities still do not run natively on the Mac.
Now for the bad. The Mac Air menus inside Office are inconvenient and clumsy as they are non-standard with the Windows counterpart. The controls don’t match what users are accustomed to on Windows, nor do they emulate most other Mac software. Therefore you waste too much time searching for features with which you’re typically familiar. In some cases, they’re simply missing altogether.
That bring us to the ugly. The Outlook module inside Office 2011 shouldn’t be called Outlook, though it is an improvement over Entourage. When purchasing a product called Office 2011, you might imagine that the software bundled inside would be an improvement over Office 2010, regardless of the platform designation. Unfortunately, I can assure you this is not the case. Outlook 2011 looks okay at first glance, but there are a number of areas Microsoft must to address. Where to begin? For starters, the “offline” mode requires some attention as the software behaves sluggishly in this mode. Also, I’m a bit nauseated by the spinning rainbow pinwheel each time I open up contacts. When switching to this view, there is invariably a 20-30 second delay when you can do absolutely nothing but wait until the pinwheel stops its rotations and finally returns control to the user.
Cloud to the Rescue? Not quite yet
Cloud services represent another area where some of the ugliness assimilating Apple and Microsoft can be abridged. Both companies have made integration with outside cloud services far more difficult than they should be. For instance, Windows users can sync Google contacts and calendars with Outlook, but Mac users cannot. Apple is also guilty of delaying availability of iCloud to PC users. Assuming you have an Apple device, iCloud is great. But as far as I can tell, it’s worthless with any other OS or hardware. I think Apple is really missing the mark here as they made huge inroads into Windows Land when they made iTunes available for the platform. Now Apple is at a critical juncture again. I’m ready to see the company make iCloud fully available for Windows and other platforms, and perhaps have the rest of their cloud strategy become as pervasive as iTunes. Forget the enterprise the current cloud offering doesn’t even work well for consumers or the SMB.
Impact not just to Apple
With the Windows 8 launch being tepid at best (both across the desktop OS and mobile platforms), now is the time that Microsoft needs to solidify the Office franchise as the platform of choice for Enterprise class customers and the SMB. To begin with Microsoft should make Office available for the iPad. Unfortunately nobody knows if or when this might happen. Forbes recently ran the following article on why this isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/02/17/microsoft-office-on-the-ipad-dont-hold-your-breath/ Which brings to mind why hasn’t Microsoft clarified its position on the iPad especially since so many of their customers now own one. While Microsoft would love everyone to buy a Windows 8 tablet the adoption rate even under the rosiest scenarios being offered is just not going to make a significant dent in the total market for tablets – at least not yet. Besides making me happy why should Microsoft do this? Microsoft’s failure to make Office work seamlessly across Apple products could open the door for even more defections to Google Apps to occur. Ensuring that the Office franchise works seamlessly with Mac and IOS is not only good for users, but to protect the franchise.
More Questions than Answers
If you were Microsoft what would you do? Will Office 2013 for the Mac will finally rival the Windows version? Who shares more of the blame for lack of compatibility and functionality? Where are both companies going over the next few years? What, if anything, will make them play nicer together? Would universal Office apps across the Apple universe and Android platforms slow the adoption of Google Apps? No matter which way you look the stakes are high and the risks are many for everyone involved. This is for sure – Microsoft/Apple dysfunction only benefits Google and could hurt both of them in the long run.
