January 23, 2006 12:01 PM PST
Apple's iWork emerges as rival to Microsoft Office
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According to market researcher NPD, Apple grabbed a 2.7 percent unit share, while Corel had a 1.6 percent share. Microsoft maintained its dominance with nearly 95 percent of unit sales.
Apple's share is particularly impressive considering that iWork runs only on Macs, which account for a small fraction of computers, said NPD analyst Chris Swenson. "Apple's success for iWork has been pretty surprising," he said.
Looking at the Mac platform alone, iWork accounted for 17.4 percent, compared to about 82 percent for Microsoft. "Apple's iWork didn't overtake Microsoft Office, but I think taking almost a fifth of the Mac Office Suite market away from an entrenched competitor such as Microsoft is quite an accomplishment," Swenson said.
Corel, meanwhile did see its unit sales of WordPerfect Office grow 6.1 percent year over year, but its dollar revenue from those products dropped by 0.7 percent, Swenson said. Swenson said his sense is that the products aren't getting much advertising inside retail stores.
"I think Corel has their work cut out for them," Swenson said.
Corel recently updated its WordPerfect Office program as well, while Microsoft is due to release a significant update, Office 12, later this year.
The iWork program is a relative newcomer to the Office scene, having debuted in January, 2005. Earlier this month, Apple updated iWork, enhancing the Pages word processor and Keynote layout program with improved table capabilities, but not adding a spreadsheet program as some had expected.
There had been reports, apparently incorrect, on some Apple enthusiast sites that sales of the initial iWork software had lagged.
"One rumor that can be put to rest is that iWork wasn't selling well," Swenson said.
For its part, Corel said that it has 10 to 15 times more sales than iWork when you add in other channels--such as commercial sales and sales through distributors--and that PC makers, including Dell, sometimes bundle WordPerfect Office on their new PCs.
"When you add all of them up we stand strong to our claim of being the leading alternative," said Richard Carriere, general manager of Corel's Office Productivity unit. That said, having a major presence at retailers is important, he added.
"It's a small fraction of the market, Carriere said, adding: "It's very important for showcasing our product and we are present in all the major outlets."
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Seriously I'd rather use open office then Pages.
Office. iWork is substantially less ($79 vs $359) and has a more
personal/small business vs corporate target market. So some of
its sales are to people who wouldn't have bought Office anyway.
I would bet sales of Office have gone up, not down, even though
MS's share of the "Office" software market may have slightly
declined.
If the Mac has a 5% marketshare of the PC world and 17.4% of Macs have iWork, then iWork has a 1% share.
For the math to get to 2.7%, Macs would need to have made up 15.6% of all PCs that purchased an office-style productivity package. I guess not many Windows users are buying these packages.
Windows® XP, Windows® 2000 (with SP4), Windows® 98 SE, or Windows® Server 2003
By what other means does Corel have to support mac users ? I would use it if available. iwork is starting to become the app of choice with mac users due to tight integration with all other iapps. Keynote simply rocks.Sorry, Keynote is a mac thing just as Wordperfect is to window users.
thing. You might as well compare a baseball to a banana.
Where is the spreadsheet, word processor, e-mail in iWork? Pages
is not a replacement for Word so that leaves Keynote for
presentations as the only part that could be compared. People that
buy iWork do not buy it to replace Office only to add to the tool set
they have in their computer.
Mail order, Online sales, Sales direct from the manufacturer, or Bundled sales are not measured. According to NPD Dell sells no computers.
So these figures are essentially meaningless - unless you had to wait in line while someone bought a thousand copies of MS Office.
I do, however, own and use iWork (just upgraded to iWork '06). I also own and use Microsoft Office for Mac 2004 Professional. They both have their uses, and they almost never overlap. When I want to write an article, or an essay, I use MS Word (although I admit that OpenOffice is getting closer and closer to making a convert out of me). When I want to create a presentation, or an advertisement, implementing pictures from iPhoto, movies from iMovie, and soundbites from GarageBand, i use iWork. Apple's iWork suite is for exactly that: easy syncing and compatibility with other popular Apple software. Microsoft Office is, as the name implies, an office suite.
I'd much rather see the comparisons of MS Office to OpenOffice. Obviously, MS Office is still dominant, but I do believe the open-source movement has had some effect on the market shares. In the meantime, you can't compare Honda Accord sales figures with Dodge Viper sales figures, and you can't compare iWork to MS Office.
By the way, iWork is compatable with Office.
which one will a good business man/woman choose> Open office & office.
office even!) but it is a joke to call it "office".
There is a huge zealotry around, there are people who buys
everything Apple ships (aka mac users) so I would not trust this
story for making decisions.
Simplest example: There is no "revisions" built in iWork.
- Definition of rival
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by KsprayDad
January 25, 2006 3:40 PM PST
- # One who attempts to equal or surpass another, or who pursues the same object as another; a competitor.
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Reply to this comment
-
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See all 74 Comments >># One that equals or almost equals another in a particular respect.
Perhaps if Apple had 50% of the PC market it could even start to attempt to equal...
2.7% of the market and you get a headline of "top rival"?
Do we just like to type the word 'apple' at CNET or what gives!