- Joined
- Mar 16, 2011
- Messages
- 112
- Reaction score
- 0
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- 0
- Location
- Oregon, United States
- Excel Version(s)
- 365, Online, iOS, iOS for iPad
I don't know if you're splitting hairs, I think it's more greedy than anything (for want of more - although I can't blame you!). The way I look at it, there are thousands of users on other applications which do the same thing as OWA. What we do know is that Microsoft (or at least someone finally kicked them in the butt to jumpstart them) is finally on the bandwagon with this type of development. It's not the full-blown version, sure, but it does a ton of the basics, which is what most people need. We're the minority when it comes to the people using Excel (for example). The number of people who use 'advanced' options in Office are less in number than those who don't. It makes perfect business sense to offer them a free alternative, not with all the bells and whistles, but enough to get by. If they want more, buy the full app. It's beautiful strategy and marketing really. Of the people I know here geo-locally, 100% of them could get by with not ever buying Office and just using what is currently offered in OWA. I am literally the only person, probably within a 500 sq mi radius (probably more), which uses anything beyond what OWA delivers.
I think the topic of "what collaboration should be" is another topic altogether though. I don't see it as having much to do with OWA though, at least not real-time collaboration anyway. But the argument that email does that is craziness. At least once a week I have to tell users, "don't open a file right from your email, it is only a temporary file, save it first, THEN open it." Constantly. And that doesn't even cover different versions. Attaching files to emails is just a headache. Put it to the cloud? Yes please!! Google started it first with Google Docs, Microsoft is lagging behind but catching up I think. The cloud keeps it as a central repository. It's a poor man's Sharepoint in a sense (I know, not-really-kinda-maybe). I <3 OWA.
I think the topic of "what collaboration should be" is another topic altogether though. I don't see it as having much to do with OWA though, at least not real-time collaboration anyway. But the argument that email does that is craziness. At least once a week I have to tell users, "don't open a file right from your email, it is only a temporary file, save it first, THEN open it." Constantly. And that doesn't even cover different versions. Attaching files to emails is just a headache. Put it to the cloud? Yes please!! Google started it first with Google Docs, Microsoft is lagging behind but catching up I think. The cloud keeps it as a central repository. It's a poor man's Sharepoint in a sense (I know, not-really-kinda-maybe). I <3 OWA.