Office to propel Windows tablets past Android in 2015

Libre Office coming to android

http://liliputing.com/2012/07/libreoffice-coming-to-android-heres-what-it-looks-like-so-far.html

Anyhow, wtf do you want to run a full blown office suite on a 10inch screen for ? You must either be a masochist or have eyes like superman.

Why use Office?

I wonder how many of the people claiming that there's no use for Offfice on a tablet have actually worked in an environment where you have to collaborate on long specifications or contract documents. Sure, there's a lot of typing used to produce the first draft of these, but thereafter, the bulk of the time is spent in reviewing, annotating and correcting the text.

It's a lot easier to read documents on a tablet (if only because you can turn the screen 90 degrees to better accommodate the page), but no current tablet can reliably modify MS Word documents, and like it or not (I don't), MS Word is the de-facto standard of document interchange in business. Add the lower cost and much lower weight (any laptop is too heavy after you've lugged it across bloody Heathrow), and it makes it a lot easier for certain groups of employees to be given tablets than laptops.

However, for this reason, I think the loser will be Windows 8 laptops, not Android, Kindle or Apple. (And are they counting Kindle Fires as "Android" in that marketshare?)

It's as good a guess as any other...

Note that if MS get a big chunk of the business tablet market, that could fulfill the prediction alone. And THAT seems entirely plausible to me. People would use Windows tablets for Outlook alone in the business world.

I reckon...

...that Windows tablets will steal Apple's share rather than androids.

I believe that Apple won over in the corporates because there wasn't a worthwhile Windows offering on tablets which would more readily integrate in to existing infastructure and office documents.

That has arguably now changed, so it will be an interesting field to watch in the coming years.

Consumers, where price sensitivity matters more, is a difficult thing to gague.

I still don't see the solutions for Bring Your Own Device as being mature enough yet. There are still issues with the solutions we've got under test.

Haha, what?

No Android tablets by 2015? I don't think that's all that likely. Maybe the market will get stagnant and boring, but I doubt they'll be gone.

Crap Chart Indeed

That is one of the worst (or is it best?) intentionally misleading charts I've ever seen. I'm almost impressed by how they make a predicted 21% share for Android look like nothing.

On that graph, Apple's share has been falling. When Nokia's market share fell for years, all we heard from the media was doom and gloom about how awful they were, and how wonderful 3rd or 4th place Apple were for increasing their share, conveniently not mentioning how Nokia were number one until 2011.

Yet here we have the same situation for Apple with tablets - do we get negative coverage for Apple, and positive for Android? No, all we get is constant reminders of Apple being number one! I predicted this would occur, but it's sad to see the double standard and bias.

"The reason, Chiou says, is that Android's various backers cannot match Apple's slick hardware or content offerings."

Well, I stopped reading there.

How come Android dominates on phones (which are tablets, just with the added phone functionality), now by a factor of 4 to 1 to Iphone, which has never been number one? Indeed, when you view all tablets (with and without phones) together, I assume Android still wins. Are they admitting that Iphones can't match the slick Android hardware and content offering?

And even if they are, why is the situation reversed between phones and tablets?

No, the reason Apple does better is simply because they get vast amount of hype and free advertising from the media, which they got even before the Ipad was announced (remember "Islate"?) The only tablets to come close to that hype has been the Kindle Fire (only released in some markets) and the Nexus 7 (only recently released), and even then, the hype pales into comparison. It seems like every other website and TV advert has an obligitory mention for "get this for your Ipad", "works on your computer, phone and Ipad" etc.

They've also got far better support in the shops - seems like every shop has Ipads, whilst until recently, it was hard to find anything but cheap no-name Android tablets in Maplin.

So most people simply aren't even aware that there are comparable tablets - in some cases, people seem to be aware of the cheaper 7" Android tablets, but not the higher end 10" tablets.

On phones, Apple don't have this advantage as much (I mean, they've had the same free media hype for years, but at least people are aware of the other platforms, and you can walk into a phone shop and buy more than just Apple). And surprise, Apple's performance there is appalling compared to the market leaders (Symbian, and now Android).

When it's actually a fair market, let's see how well platforms do. (And this is probably an area where Windows has a better chance, since it will get more coverage than Android tablets - I hope so, anyway.) Even as things are, it seems odd to claim that after falling since 2010, Apple's share will then hardly change at all, even with the entrance of Windows 8. This is even more bizarre if the market size grows - I mean, if hundreds of millions of people want Ipads, why don't they already have one?

Judging from how effective paper shaped documents

like pdf are double plus shit on tablets I can imagine word being similar.

I do like the idea of slide and click wiping out a whole years sales data in one go...

VDI no longer in fashion???

I would have thought stuffs like spreadsheets, databases, you know things containing potentially confidential data would do much better staying on a server somewhere and not being left on a mobile device.

Connection??? Hopefully by 2015 always online won't be an issue....

I bet this analyst, like many others, have been bought over by Microsoft to put a positive spin

I vaguely remember some other analyst forecasted that Windows Phone OS will take the market by storm in 2012. Nice try, but take what these bribed shills say with a pinch of salt, and lots of skepticism.

The tablet is for media/info consumption, NOT productivity. Leveraging Office (most likely a watered down, cloud-riddled version than their desktop cousins) onto Windows tablets will not boost sales.

Steve Ballmer would have been sacked long ago if he weren't Bill Gates' friend.

Remember the Courier

Blinkered "thinking" like this is what killed Microsoft's "Courier" tablet. That oh-so-visionary Bill Gates said "It don't run office" and that's where it died. Of course Microsoft thinks that putting Office "everywhere" is going to magically save the abomination that is Windows 8...hell, with Drill Sargent Cutler running the X-box division I wouldn't be surprised to see them attempt to shoehorn Office into the X-box too. Because, you know, I often have the urge to open and edit Word documents in between rounds of Call of Duty--especially with a thumb controller.

Did anyone bother asking if tablet users really need a damn office suite? Nah...far easier to steam right on into that iceberg, right Barkto Ballmer?

Will MS give Office away for free ?

Unless MS starts giving Office away for free, selling Office capable tablets to consumers will a daunting task. Until now MS charges $100-$150 for a full office set. If google manages to package an acceptably good Open-Office word processor in Android, these tablets will be at least 25% cheaper than W8 tablets with office.

The fact that Intel cpu's are way more expensive then comparable ARM-32 variants will not be helpful too.

Since MS only source of revenues are License fees, giving away things for free is not an option.

But maybe the magic of 90-ties reoccurs, they managed to blow established names like Wordperfect, Unix workstations, Lotus123, and Mosaic out of the water, and people will continue to pay $ 150,- Wintel tax for each computing device, regardless if it has a keyboard or not.

Clerk

Hilarious prediction.