Same question but new angle

K

Kian

Hi

Im a guy from Denmark who recently saw the the advantages of using mac.
Sadly i love the office programs (still - havent tried seriosly the mac
programs yet, but maybe i should), because they are the ones i am used to use
in my daily work/study/life.


I have read most of the post on this site, and I think you are
underestimating the potential oppertunety and threats about this issue. This
post is meant as a good advice on a strategic level for you.

Clearly their is a market demand for one-note. If i wanted to win market
shares in the long term from Microsoft, here's my chance.

Mac are getting more popular all the time, and if microsoft cant see this,
then you are suffering from one of the greates threats a firm can experience.
Lack of indifference becaus you firm has gotten so big. Whar usually happens
is that "the big firms" slow down and stop to compete and developing edge new
technology software - what is mac doing and why are they succesful in these
times???

If you dont create it, somone else will. Some else might even create a new
office pack for mac, that is simular to yours. After all the only reason we
like office programs is becaus we are used to using it. What if got used to
using something else.

You are looking at this in the very short term, to genreate profit in the
short scale. Let me ask you this. Do you think the demand for one-note will
increase og decrease over the next 10 years? How many mac computers do you
think there will be in 10 years with the current growth rates? Would it be a
good strategic deciession to be ready for the future (in this area to) when
the trends are going this way?

In short - i think your are a sleeo inthis matter, and for my own concern,
if theri was to be made a new program that had same qualeties as the office
pack + one note, I would seriuosly consider it. So be smart now on how to
genreate your profits in the future and still maintain your monopoly.
 
R

Rainald Taesler

Kian,
well put.

In order to be heard at least by the developers, you may post this as a
suggestion for future development in "Connect", the place for submitting
suggestions and bug reports to the developers team:
http://connect.microsoft.com/onenote/

When done, pls drop a note with the URL in here so that we can jump in
and vote for your suggestion

Rainald
 
B

Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)

Well, with all due respect, and I say this as a guy who owns a Mac, you
don't gain market share by devoting substantial resources to developing
for a platform with less than 10% market share.

If developing a version of OneNote for the Mac was trivial then it would
probably be done (or close) already.

In my opinion, and this is just opinion, there are three obstacles to
the development of a Mac version:

1. It's not an insignificant task. The Windows version is heavily
dependent upon services provided by the OS so developing a Mac version
would probably require a near total rewrite of the app. That's a pretty
big deal and the OneNote team, who are not a big group, probably don't
have the resources to both develop a capable Mac version of the product
AND continue to develop the Windows version. Given the choice between a
Mac version or a Windows version I suspect they'll continue to develop
for the platform with ~90% market share.

The rest of the Office team handles this conundrum by having a totally
separate Mac team. The guys who develop Word 2007 (Windows) and the
guys who develop Word 2008 (Mac) are largely different teams of people.
I tend to doubt that Microsoft is going to hire an entire team of
developers just to create the Mac version of OneNote.

And what happens if OS11 ships and breaks the OS10 version they
developed?

2. OneNote really shines on the Tablet platform. It works fine on a
desktop (like the one I'm using it on right now) or a notebook but the
Tablet PC really shows the power of OneNote and there isn't any Mac
Tablet.

3. The Mac guys have learned that there is no point leaving themselves
in a silo. Accordingly apps like Parallels and Bootcamp (and others)
have come along to let you run Windows and Windows apps on the Mac.
Somebody with a Mac who REALLY wants OneNote can already run it...in
Parallels or one of the other VM/dual-boot tools. That significantly
reduces the demand for a Mac version I'm afraid.

What you're more likely to see, rather than a Mac version, is an online
version in my opinion. (and I have no specific knowledge of any such
thing in development). Then the Mac, PC, Linux and other users could
use a variant of OneNote in their browser. I have some reservations
about how capable it would be compared to the PC version but it might be
easier to develop than a Mac-specific version.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com
Author - The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3f5q
 
K

Kian

Hi Ben

Thank you for your reply. I know in the real world the tihungs you mention
are not unimportant. i have no graeter understanding of programming or how
all the technical details work. I just hope to make you see this in the long
term. Microsoft has a responsebillity in my opinon to meet the users demand,
not create patch solutions, but tyr explaning this to you CEO (you would
problably answer).

But maybe it would be worth the while even if the cos of developing the
program are substancial. After all it didnt stop Columbus and look what came
of that ( two qutie different things - i know, but anyway).

So my goal it to express my need and wish for you to develop a full
oficepack for the mac, and sure, you have come far, but why not go alle the
way when the need only can become larger. After all the best way to make
productdevelopment is to aks the custormer what he wants - its really that
simple (ask Kottler ;-)).

But thanks for your reply and taking this post seriuosly.

Best regard

Kian Nielsen, Denmark.

"Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)" skrev:
 
B

Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)

Well, it has to make sense from a business standpoint. It's a
substantial undertaking that will likely require them to hire quite a
few new developers to produce it. Then they have to package it and
market it and support it and...

At the end of the day they have to be able to sell enough copies of it
to make it worth doing and right now I just don't think the numbers make
sense. Certainly we have a steady trickle of people who wander in and
want OneNote for Mac, but I haven't seen the groundswell of demand for
it that makes me think they'd sell millions of copies. Especially
considering the fact that increasingly Mac users are happily are running
Windows apps in VMs.

If they're only going to sell a few thousand copies they may have to try
and sell it at a price point that doesn't make sense - again Microsoft
is a business, not a charity. They're only obligated to produce
products people will BUY and in great enough numbers to turn some kind
of profit.

I'm not saying it will never happen - I'm just saying OneNote is going
to be expensive to rewrite for the Mac and unless there are a LOT of
people who are willing to buy it there just isn't any business case for
it.

Keep asking though! Maybe if enough people ask eventually the numbers
will make sense. :)

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com
Author - The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3f5q
 
R

Rainald Taesler

Kian said:
So my goal it to express my need and wish for you to develop a full
oficepack for the mac,

So please do as I recommended in my last posting.
*Connect* is the place for suggestions.
After all the
best way to make productdevelopment is to aks the custormer what he
wants - its really that simple (ask Kottler ;-)).

I didn't ask him <gbg>, but knowing his approach to marketing I take the
liberty to add: Asking the customers just is not enough ;-)
"we want to have" shouted by thousands does not mean that there would be
a profitable niche in the market.

Rainald
 

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