Apple iWork Isn’t Enterprise Class

Microsoft was not at all pleased recently when Apple announced that iWork would be made available at no charge to new Mac and iOS device owners, as part of the belief that its top software should be free.

But it was perhaps more a shot over Microsoft’s bow, since the enterprise software giant continues to charge for its productivity suite. The very thought of going free with Office is enough to give Microsoft executives and investors nightmares because the productivity suite drives the largest share of Microsoft’s earnings.

Perhaps that’s why Microsoft was so quick to criticise Apple in a recent post on its official blog. Microsoft corporate vice president of communications Frank Shaw said that “iWork has never gotten much traction.”

He went on to say that he doesn’t see the price drop as “a shot across our bow, I see an attempt to play catch up.” Although Apple’s rabid fans have scoffed at Shaw’s comments, his point is well-taken. As nice as iWork might be for the novice user, as a whole, it cannot compete in any way with Office.

More productive

People want free productivity suites, but don’t want to pay hundreds of pounds for them, but the truth is free doesn’t mean customers are getting more value. Office might be expensive, costing Windows users over £200 for a new version, but it’s also far more powerful and capable than iWork.

Try crunching numbers that are pages and pages long in Apple Numbers, and you’ll quickly discover that Excel is the best way to go for such tasks. Plus, Microsoft’s Excel comes with support for pivot tables and more graph options, and it is a workhorse for financial professionals. Until Numbers can catch up to Excel, it doesn’t make sense for serious number crunchers to go with Apple’s product.

Microsoft Word doesn’t come with the same number of formatting options as Pages, but what Word lacks in that area, it makes up for with better handling of the myriad document types in the wild, its additional tools, its ability to link with Excel and its Document Elements feature. Word doesn’t take a back seat to iWork in any of those areas, and it’s not a weak link in the Microsoft Office suite.

Microsoft is also ahead in terms of its cloud offerings, with SkyDrive being an important feature for Office. The cloud-based storage platform allows users to save documents and other files in the cloud, thus making them available anywhere users go. iWork for iCloud works in a similar manner, but SkyDrive is a full-service cloud-based offering.

Office enterprise advantage

iWork simply isn’t an enterprise platform. While it might seem suitable for certain casual users, many companies that require the high-end features found in Excel or Word wouldn’t consider iWork as a viable alternative. Perhaps that’s why Apple’s iWork marketing seems to target consumers very heavily.

One of Apple’s main selling points with iWork is that it works on multiple hardware platforms. But now that Office is running on tablets and is heading to smartphones at a rapid rate, Microsoft can also stake claim to that feature. Support for multiple form factors is definitely important. That’s why Microsoft is doing it.

It also works on a number of different operating systems. iWork is only available as a native application on OS X and iOS. Office, meanwhile, works on Windows and OS X, as well as Windows Phone, Windows RT and other mobile platforms through remote desktop applications. iWork for iCloud allows for more access on more devices, but native applications are the best way to experience productivity suites.

Better than free

A free version of iWork might appeal to consumers, but Apple isn’t the first to offers it productivity suite without charge. Office might not be free on the desktop, but on the Surface RT, Microsoft bundles it with every device it sells.

That might not be the same as offering iWork for free on all devices as Apple has done, but Microsoft has already done it. And that’s only after countless open-source programs, like OpenOffice and LibreOffice, as well as Google, offered their suites for free.

Sometimes, a company can offer something better than free, and for Microsoft this is Office 365, which promises to be a full solution for enterprise customers who want to do everything from work in the cloud to collaborating on projects.

The subscription-based model would surely be criticised by Apple fans who like the fact their favorite firm is offering iWork for free. But for corporate users, Microsoft’s pricing model works well, as long as Microsoft continues to improve upon Office 365 while not raising its prices significantly.

Like it or not, Microsoft Office is a standard in the enterprise marketplace. Companies and consumers across the globe save files in .doc, .xls or .ppt, not because they love Microsoft, but because they’re aware that there’s a very, very good chance that the recipient of those files will be able to read them. Until iWork hits the point of being the go-to standard in productivity, it’s hard to see how it can be a better option than Office.

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Originally published on eWeek.