4 ms·

If we take the mantra: "Create something that people want and want to pay for" what would be the application you would create if there were no competitors? As

by nadam 16y ago

If we take the mantra: "Create something that people want and want to pay for" what would be the application you would create if there were no competitors? As far as I am concerned it would be the Office suite. People at every company want to edit documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and companies can pay for such software. Companies buy (hundreds of?) millions of MS Office licenses. For me Microsoft = MS Office. Microsoft will remain a huge and profitable company until no one can really compete with MS Office. Most of the things the tech media speaks about is irrelevant in this respect. People will not want to edit documents on smart phones and touch-screens. It is really not sure that people want to edit their documents using an Ajax app and want to host all of their documents remotely at Google. I would say that other big companies seem to have bad strategies: If they wanted to kill Microsoft they would just have to compete with MS Office directly. The problem what MS Office solves is an essential one. It is incredible that Microsoft has almost monopoly at such an important market.

bbraakman 16y ago
Yes, it is amazing what they achieved with MS Office. Yet, there are plenty of companies who actually are trying an Office-free life as the licences are actually quite expensive. Compatibility between various Office programs (alternatives) has increased and for basic stuff Google Docs works actually nicely. I found the relationship between MS Office and MS Windows the most interesting. How strong will MS Office be, without Windows. Office is the Killer app that Windows has. But a lot of people are steering away from Windows. This is not going to happen overnight, but it might happen sooner or later. Also - plenty of companies are still working with Office 2003 (or even 2000). The cost op upgrading is pretty significant, so companies wait longer and longer for that. That is very bad for innovation (as you keep being stuck with older software) but good for the companies wallets. Editing of documents (albeit simple editing) is something people want on their iPads (and to some extend on other smaller devices too). Do not agree with you there.
- Silhouette 16y ago
  > Office is the Killer app that Windows has. But a lot of people are steering away from Windows. Really? Do you think next year will be the year of Linux on the desktop? Or that desktop Mac sales will suddenly jump by orders of magnitude? > The cost op upgrading is pretty significant, so companies wait longer and longer for that. I'm not sure it's a cost issue as much as a value for money issue. Companies used to pay a fortune to upgrade to new versions of MS Office, but aside from changing the UI around, to mixed reviews, what major innovation has there really been since the early 2000s to justify the upgrade fees now? There are plenty of pain points in MS Office where, for example, the usability could be significantly better or some potentially useful functionality is still missing. However, since alternatives such as OpenOffice or Google Docs tend to lag so far behind on these counts anyway, there hasn't been much incentive for MS to improve their product, and the stagnation you alluded to is the result. > Editing of documents (albeit simple editing) is something people want on their iPads (and to some extend on other smaller devices too). Sorry, I don't buy it. If I'm in a meeting with a bunch of other guys and we're working through something, it's painful enough watching the guys taking the notes when they are writing them up on a laptop/netbook with a real keyboard, connected up to the projector/TV on the wall. I can only imagine how tedious it would be if they had to fix all the typos and navigate around their document using only a touchscreen.
rbanffy 16y ago
> As far as I am concerned it would be the Office suite. I would create Google Documents with forms and workflow automation. I'd pay less attention to formatting and emphasize semantics as the exchange of documents would be purely electronic and they would never hit paper. I would also emphasize collaboration and virtual meeting rooms with shared white boards, possibly with added voice chat and, bandwidth allowing, video.

by nadam 16y ago

bbraakman 16y ago

Yes, it is amazing what they achieved with MS Office. Yet, there are plenty of companies who actually are trying an Office-free life as the licences are actually quite expensive. Compatibility between various Office programs (alternatives) has increased and for basic stuff Google Docs works actually nicely. I found the relationship between MS Office and MS Windows the most interesting. How strong will MS Office be, without Windows. Office is the Killer app that Windows has. But a lot of people are steering away from Windows. This is not going to happen overnight, but it might happen sooner or later. Also - plenty of companies are still working with Office 2003 (or even 2000). The cost op upgrading is pretty significant, so companies wait longer and longer for that. That is very bad for innovation (as you keep being stuck with older software) but good for the companies wallets. Editing of documents (albeit simple editing) is something people want on their iPads (and to some extend on other smaller devices too). Do not agree with you there.

Silhouette 16y ago
> Office is the Killer app that Windows has. But a lot of people are steering away from Windows. Really? Do you think next year will be the year of Linux on the desktop? Or that desktop Mac sales will suddenly jump by orders of magnitude? > The cost op upgrading is pretty significant, so companies wait longer and longer for that. I'm not sure it's a cost issue as much as a value for money issue. Companies used to pay a fortune to upgrade to new versions of MS Office, but aside from changing the UI around, to mixed reviews, what major innovation has there really been since the early 2000s to justify the upgrade fees now? There are plenty of pain points in MS Office where, for example, the usability could be significantly better or some potentially useful functionality is still missing. However, since alternatives such as OpenOffice or Google Docs tend to lag so far behind on these counts anyway, there hasn't been much incentive for MS to improve their product, and the stagnation you alluded to is the result. > Editing of documents (albeit simple editing) is something people want on their iPads (and to some extend on other smaller devices too). Sorry, I don't buy it. If I'm in a meeting with a bunch of other guys and we're working through something, it's painful enough watching the guys taking the notes when they are writing them up on a laptop/netbook with a real keyboard, connected up to the projector/TV on the wall. I can only imagine how tedious it would be if they had to fix all the typos and navigate around their document using only a touchscreen.

rbanffy 16y ago

> As far as I am concerned it would be the Office suite. I would create Google Documents with forms and workflow automation. I'd pay less attention to formatting and emphasize semantics as the exchange of documents would be purely electronic and they would never hit paper. I would also emphasize collaboration and virtual meeting rooms with shared white boards, possibly with added voice chat and, bandwidth allowing, video.