In case you missed the announcement,
But Office for the iPad is here at last and it's only taken four years since the device was first released. So, will it work? Will the users like it? In many ways that's the wrong set of questions.
If you're not paying for the product you are the product
The issue I have with this emergence of Office on a new platform is twofold. First I'm a little concerned about how well it's going to work. I've just downloaded it and, much as I knew it couldn't, the presence of a version of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, has done nothing to address the opacity of any file system on iOS. You can save to your iPad but it won't appear on your desktop. The design of this software is all about migrating you into the cloud - note that, it's about them moving you - effectively turning you into a revenue stream rather than a one-off buyer. This isn't going to happen at your pace if you want to use Microsoft Office on your iPad, even if you bought a packaged version of Word only last week. Standalone computing may not be completely dead but there are people out there trying to kill it or at least make it look less appealing.
Second there are the omissions for Mac users, still present and correct unless that should be 'still absent and correct' or incorrect or whatever. My daughter often gets set homework from school to complete in Microsoft Publisher (I know, I've told them, but they won't listen to me). On her iPad as far as the software companies are concerned she can more or less get lost. I'm not a database user myself which is just as well; you don't get Access with this. And do I get a discount on my subscription as a Mac user who doesn't get all the software? Do I heck.
The big issue for me, though, remains that I'm not so much in charge any more. There are different factors at work here, one of which is that I'm 50 next year; I have no doubt many younger readers will be wondering just why I'm all that fussed about using cloud services. There are reasons, though. On trains in the UK, on planes and elsewhere, you can find yourself without a connection - if everything is saved to the cloud, you can't work on things. Of course I can see the advantages too; work a bit on my desktop computer at home, pick up the same thing on my laptop or even collaborate with a colleague - I've just co-written a book and this might have made the whole process simpler. Get me into the habit of saving everything to the rechristened 'OneDrive', though, and if the signal cuts out I'm sunk.
I'm left with the overriding impression that even more than usual, this isn't being done for me but for Microsoft and its wish to convert us all into subscribers rather than one-offs. As the crosshead says, if you're not paying for the product, you are the product. It's just that on this occasion I may not be paying for the app directly but I'm paying for Office 365. It's a little puzzling that after it's taken my money it seems to be calling the shots.
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