Apple and VMware Join Forces on iPad App to Challenge Microsoft Office

  • Apple and VMware are partnering to create an iPad cloud-hosted office system to directly challenge Microsoft Office. This news comes just as Microsoft nears the release of its new Office for iPad and iPhones.
  • “The iPad app combines VMware View virtual-desktop software with cloud-hosted versions of Pages, Keynote and Numbers — known as the iWork suite — running on Apple infrastructure,” reports CRN. “VMware’s Horizon Application Manager, a management tool that has been likened to an enterprise app store, is also included.”
  • “Apple wants Pages to be seen as a replacement for Microsoft Word, Numbers as a replacement for Excel and Keynote as a replacement for PowerPoint,” a source told CRN. The article does not indicate what the program will cost or when it will be released.
  • The high price of the Microsoft Office suite allows for other competitors to enter the space, suggests CRN.
  • The new version of Office has been redesigned to accommodate touchscreens. This is important, as Microsoft’s Surface tablet is set to directly challenge Apple’s dominance in the tablet and smartphone markets.
  • Microsoft’s emergence as a direct competitor to Apple may have convinced Apple to begin challenging Microsoft in its traditional spaces.

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