Microsoft executive slams the iPad and Apple’s iWork apps

On Tuesday, Apple announced updates to its iWork and iLife apps for iOS and OS X. They also dropped the price on the apps, offering them for free with the purchase of a new device. Needless to say, this new price tag has caught the attention of its competitors like Microsoft, which reacted strongly to the announcement in a post on Microsoft’s TechNet blog. Frank Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Communications at Microsoft slams iWork, calling the suite a set of “struggling, lightweight productivity apps.” He claims the price drop is “hardly that surprising or significant a move” because “iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought.” He educates the attendees at Apple’s October special event by pointing a series of facts that extol the virtues of the Surface and Surface 2 tablet. “• The Surface and Surface 2 are less expensive than the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively, and yet offer more storage, both onboard and in the cloud. • … come with full versions of Office 2013, including Outlook, not non-standard, non-cross-platform, imitation apps that can’t share docs with the rest of the world. • … offer additional native productivity enhancing capabilities like kickstands, USB ports, SD card slots and multiple keyboard options. • … include interfaces for opening multiple windows, either side by side or layered to fit the way most people actually work.” He ends the rant by concluding that Apple and others “are waking up to the fact that we’ve built a better solution for people everywhere.” [Via TechNet] Continue reading →

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