Last Thursday we informed you at Applelised full final arrival of Office al iPad However, the news, as important as expected, cannot help leaving us with a "bittersweet aftertaste."
Office for iPad, a success as it is?
Microsoft has resisted giving in to Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), for a long time. They have resisted so much that a "change of government" has been necessary so that in just one month Office land in our iPad. But make no mistake, obviously the Redmond office suite was already ready, although it must have been something like a continuous internal debate of conscience between "I have to do it" but "I don't want to do it.
In any case Office has come wrong. We still do not know if he has been literally late, this is something that only time and users will tell, but that he has arrived with the wrong option, of that, I am sure.
In an environment where free options prevail, Office breaks into the App Store at a price of nothing more and nothing less than € 99 per year. We are no longer talking about a paid application, the ones you buy and use, if not an eternal subscription, never ending and at an affordable price, just to be able to do something basic with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, edit and create documents. I insist, something basic like creating and editing documents.
Curiously, it strikes me how other media not only defend this option, but even praise it, stating that it is not excessive, especially considering that it is software that has always been paid for. I believe that we are facing very different situations that some cannot, or simply do not want to see. One thing is to pay for a software, once and another, quite different, is a subscription of € 99 per year.
On the other hand, these same defenders, whose reasons I cannot understand, especially because of the media in which they write, try to defend the option chosen by Microsoft, arguing that it has finally had to "go through the coffers of Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),«. I am not going to go into numbers, both because I do not know them exactly and because it is not my thing, but it should be remembered that Microsoft has stakes in Apple and that therefore, that 30% that Apple keeps from the subscriptions made through the iPad, will end up reverting in one way or another, not in its entirety but in part, in Microsoft.
Therefore, let's stop the nonsense. Microsoft He has chosen this method simply because he wanted to, because it benefits him, or at least he believes, financially, something that I do not discuss and that even, as a private company, seems logical and reasonable to me. But since they try to paint it another way, it seems completely ridiculous.
Alternatives to Office ... and free.
If we want to create and edit documents in our iPad, or on any other device, and not just "view documents", we have more than interesting options. Every day more users and institutions are opting for other options with almost similar functions and perfectly useful for the vast majority and, furthermore, simpler, without so much mess of options, menus, etc. And above all, perfectly compatible with the Office office suite.
iWork.
For users immersed in the ecosystem Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote they are perhaps the best option as long as the synchronization between devices is just perfect. It is completely free from the moment you purchase a new product from the company; is characterized by its simplicity and sharing files with Office users is very simple thanks to its converter that acts in both ways, both input and output, so we can create and edit a text document in Pages and share it with whoever we want in Word format, for example.
Drive.
The other great option for all users regardless of the platform or device from which they operate is Google Drive where we find what was previously known as Google Docs. It includes a text editor, spreadsheets, presentations, forms ... It allows collaborative and simultaneous work, perhaps with a quality that no other reaches (and I say this from experience) and, of course, it is also compatible with Microsoft formats.
Both, iWork y Drive They also have free cloud storage, 5GB and 15GB respectively (expandable upon payment, but optional).
Another life is possible.
With all this I do not mean that Office for iPad it has to be free as effort and work must be recognized. But this cannot imply clearly abusive prices for the vast majority of users. There are other options, or options in between. For example, yes Office has three essential products, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and thus they are differentiated by three different applications, but a user only uses Word, why does he have to pay for options that he will not use?
If the trend in the app and software market follows the path that it has taken for a long time, I am convinced that in the near future rather than the distant future Microsoft you will have to rectify, as you have already done with Office Mobile for iPhone, although in this case it was to put honey on the lips and cajole us towards the version iPad.
You can live without Office, as you can also live without Windows, the option chosen now only depends on each one.