4 ms·
Maybe I'm crazy for thinking this, but am I the only one who doesn't think that "the cloud" has to equal "the web"? Dropbox is probably my favorite cloud based
by programminggeek 15y ago
Maybe I'm crazy for thinking this, but am I the only one who doesn't think that "the cloud" has to equal "the web"?
Dropbox is probably my favorite cloud based service and guess what, I almost never use the web client. Sure the web client is awesome and super useful, but most of the time I'm using the native apps.
I agree that MSFT needs to massively improve Office web apps, but just because the primary focus is syncing with existing office apps is not a bad thing at all. For those of you not keeping score at home, Office is probably the most popular boxed software in the world outside of Windows.
Microsoft would be incredibly stupid to tell all their customers that they now have to use web versions. Their customers would tell them they want to keep using Outlook, Excel, Word, and Powerpoint like they have for the last 15 years.
If you were sitting on millions of existing office users, they'd be your #1 potential customer base too. That's just good business.
As nerds we all love the internet and the potential of the web, but as entrepreneurs, we should look at what Office 365 is doing and learn a few lessons from the pros. Already MSFT is signing up big enterprises on this thing. If they can execute at all, it's going to be a BIG hit.
Ballmer might not get consumer products at all, but when it comes to selling to and serving business customers, he gets it.
- billybob 15y ago"Microsoft would be incredibly stupid to tell all their customers that they now have to use web versions." Yes, they would. But they'd also be stupid NOT to do what Google Docs is doing. 1) Offer a web-based set of apps that do most of what the desktop versions do and also facilitate sharing. 2) Make it easy to tie those in with desktop versions of Office (see Google Cloud Connect). This lets them capture the desktop-only people, the web-only people, and those stuck in the middle. If they don't do this, they're pushing everyone but the desktop-only people away. The question is whether they will do it well enough to keep their customers, or whether their hesitance to lose the OS lock-in will make them do a hemigluteal job on their web app, in which case people will go with Google Docs or Zoho anyway.
- Michiel 15y agoYou should check out Office 365...