Apple, VMware Team On iPad Microsoft Office Killer

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Apple, VMware Team On iPad Microsoft Office Killer

Apple and VMware are teaming on an iPad Microsoft Office killer that combines Apple's cloud-hosted versions of iWork suite, with Pages, Keynote and Numbers, with VMware View virtual desktop software.

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AllenFalcon

While Apple and VMware have a long way to go turning a disjoint set of 2nd tier apps into a business productivity suite, Microsoft is definitely vulnerable. Office 2013 will see slow adoption as it requires Windows 8, an OS that is not receiving a warm welcome in the business community. This gives other vendors time to introduce and improve their office productivity solutions.

Google Apps for Business and ZoHo, to a lesser extent, already offer businesses a robust, highly integrated suite of maturing productivity tools that deliver the collaboration and data management capabilities businesses want. As Google, in particular, completes the availability of offline services across devices, Google Apps for Business will grow in attractiveness as a viable alternative to MS Office.

Microsoft also seems to be pinning its future as a Windows-only platform provider. You can run any device you want, so long as it uses Windows. MacOS, Android, iOs, and Linux get 2nd tier versions of Microsoft solutions, if any at all -- and Microsoft has said this will continue. Does Microsoft believe that companies will mandate Windows phones just so that people can access MS Office documents? This seems to fly in the face of the consumerization of IT, BYOD trends, and the shift in technology spending to CMOs and other CXOs (and away from CIOs).

Microsoft is "all in" on the gamble that they can own the full ecosystem.