33 ms·

Copying Office and making it a webapp with less features is not killing Office. Not even close. Microsoft Office is legacy software. Its killer won't have anyt

Copying Office and making it a webapp with less features is not killing Office. Not even close. Microsoft Office is legacy software. Its killer won't have anything to do with, it will be totally different. For example, Slack. I mean, killing PowerPoint is not making a webapp to create presentations, but creating something that makes creating presentations unnecessary. Ideas: SaaS, ML, cloud dashboards and analytics, communication. Credit: Benedict Evans.

tincholio 10y ago
Slack will have a hard time killing office, seeing as MS Teams does pretty much all that Slack does, and integrates with all the rest of Office 365.
- astrodust 10y ago
  I'm not sure a lot of people that use Slack use Office. I know a lot that use Slack + Google Docs almost exclusively. It's a matter of tradition. Older firms with a large collection of native Office documents need Office. Newer ones without that baggage can be more adaptable.
xena 10y ago
So you mean Quip? https://quip.com/ https://quip.com/
- rubidium 10y ago
  Looks like a kids play thing. MS office with Teams basically does all that already, plus a ton of other things.
ch4s3 10y ago
> creating something that makes creating presentations unnecessary I think you're missing the point. Presentations are no different than giving a speech with visual aids, with the additional benefit of sharing your notes after the fact. You can give a sales pitch, a conference talk, an internal update, or share some info about your favorite band. Its free form and incredibly versatile. Analytics isn't going to replace a conference talk, or a sales pitch. That's not to mention the wide variety of uses for Excel. It's everything from a financial analysis tool to a digital scratch paper. Slack is fine but it's just a slow irc client with pretty good search.
- avn2109 10y ago
  >> "...pretty good search." Ugh all I want is to be able to grep my Slack conversations instead of using their search interface, which drives me mad :( :( :(
  - ch4s3 10y ago
    Like I said, it's pretty good but not great. I'm generally ambivalent about slack and think it has a really nice UI, but very poor UX.
coldtea 10y ago
>Microsoft Office is legacy software. Its killer won't have anything to do with, it will be totally different. For example, Slack. A business can't write office documents and do spreadsheets in Slack, and they'll need to do both things well into the year 2100. What you describe is not an "office killer". Is just an app that might win businesses for a different task. At best an Outlook Server killer, or a totally new category. >I mean, killing PowerPoint is not making a webapp to create presentations, but creating something that makes creating presentations unnecessary. That's not how it works, except in a handful of situations and only when the new product covers the same basic need (e.g. Netflix vs VHS or Cinema).
- beamatronic 10y ago
  Why everyone hasn't switched to Google Docs/Sheets is beyond me. Files aren't even necessary any more, unless you count exporting to .pdf, so you can provide an immutable copy to someone ( which they are usually going to just print anyway )
  - dehue 10y ago
    Google docs is still way slower for me than Microsoft Word. I can open a 200 page work document in word with table of contents, comments, etc. and make changes to it with no problem. Opening and working on my 18 page google doc file where I write my notes is so much slower and more annoying in comparison. Not to mention all the features that the Google programs lack in comparison to Word.
    - rhlsthrm 10y ago
      Yes, and browser-based apps still don't seem to perform (subjectively) as well as standalone desktop apps. I do see that changing in the future, however.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    >Why everyone hasn't switched to Google Docs/Sheets is beyond me. Much slower, much less features (people might not use all 100% of Word, but the 20% they do use has a lot of non-overlapping features between them), files are totally necessary, and not all businesses/organizations want (or are even allowed by law) to give their data to Google.
jm__87 10y ago
Yeah, this makes way more sense. Why replace something that works that everyone knows how to use with something else that does the same thing that no one knows how to use. Whoever finds a way to replace Excel spreadsheets with something better will make a lot of money...

tincholio 10y ago

Slack will have a hard time killing office, seeing as MS Teams does pretty much all that Slack does, and integrates with all the rest of Office 365.

astrodust 10y ago
I'm not sure a lot of people that use Slack use Office. I know a lot that use Slack + Google Docs almost exclusively. It's a matter of tradition. Older firms with a large collection of native Office documents need Office. Newer ones without that baggage can be more adaptable.

xena 10y ago

So you mean Quip? https://quip.com/ https://quip.com/

rubidium 10y ago
Looks like a kids play thing. MS office with Teams basically does all that already, plus a ton of other things.

ch4s3 10y ago

> creating something that makes creating presentations unnecessary I think you're missing the point. Presentations are no different than giving a speech with visual aids, with the additional benefit of sharing your notes after the fact. You can give a sales pitch, a conference talk, an internal update, or share some info about your favorite band. Its free form and incredibly versatile. Analytics isn't going to replace a conference talk, or a sales pitch. That's not to mention the wide variety of uses for Excel. It's everything from a financial analysis tool to a digital scratch paper. Slack is fine but it's just a slow irc client with pretty good search.

avn2109 10y ago
>> "...pretty good search." Ugh all I want is to be able to grep my Slack conversations instead of using their search interface, which drives me mad :( :( :(
- ch4s3 10y ago
  Like I said, it's pretty good but not great. I'm generally ambivalent about slack and think it has a really nice UI, but very poor UX.

coldtea 10y ago

>Microsoft Office is legacy software. Its killer won't have anything to do with, it will be totally different. For example, Slack. A business can't write office documents and do spreadsheets in Slack, and they'll need to do both things well into the year 2100. What you describe is not an "office killer". Is just an app that might win businesses for a different task. At best an Outlook Server killer, or a totally new category. >I mean, killing PowerPoint is not making a webapp to create presentations, but creating something that makes creating presentations unnecessary. That's not how it works, except in a handful of situations and only when the new product covers the same basic need (e.g. Netflix vs VHS or Cinema).

beamatronic 10y ago
Why everyone hasn't switched to Google Docs/Sheets is beyond me. Files aren't even necessary any more, unless you count exporting to .pdf, so you can provide an immutable copy to someone ( which they are usually going to just print anyway )
- dehue 10y ago
  Google docs is still way slower for me than Microsoft Word. I can open a 200 page work document in word with table of contents, comments, etc. and make changes to it with no problem. Opening and working on my 18 page google doc file where I write my notes is so much slower and more annoying in comparison. Not to mention all the features that the Google programs lack in comparison to Word.
  - rhlsthrm 10y ago
    Yes, and browser-based apps still don't seem to perform (subjectively) as well as standalone desktop apps. I do see that changing in the future, however.
- coldtea 10y ago
  >Why everyone hasn't switched to Google Docs/Sheets is beyond me. Much slower, much less features (people might not use all 100% of Word, but the 20% they do use has a lot of non-overlapping features between them), files are totally necessary, and not all businesses/organizations want (or are even allowed by law) to give their data to Google.

jm__87 10y ago

Yeah, this makes way more sense. Why replace something that works that everyone knows how to use with something else that does the same thing that no one knows how to use. Whoever finds a way to replace Excel spreadsheets with something better will make a lot of money...