The UK Apple ads…

I was out jogging last night with my new iPod Shuffle. The iPod Shuffle I bought just before Apple released the new coloured iPod Shuffle, with the new style headphones…

Hmmm…

Anyway, that isn’t the point of this article. It’s what I saw whilst out running that caught my attention. There upon the side of a bus shelter was a UK version of the ‘I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC’ adverts.

Apple of late has completely gone against character, and started actually advertising the Mac for a change. These ads started in the US, spread over to China, and now here in the UK we are blessed with ‘UK-centric’ versions of these ads.

I’ve already spoken of the US ads before, but these new UK ads do need to be commented on further, not on whether they work, or are well put together, but on the very subtle differences between our versions, and the US ones.

Firstly there’s the cultural differences, the Mac guy says ‘hello’, instead of ‘hi’, for instance, and there’s a healthy smattering of UK colloquialisms. This shows that a lot of thought has been given to making these ads work in a UK setting, instead of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ marketing the UK has got used to from global brands.

If I hear ‘zoom-zoom’, or ‘auto-emocion’ one more time I’ll scream.

Secondly are the changes to the scripts. Where the ads are the same, (in ‘Viruses’ for instance), the US Mac states that those 114,000 viruses do not affect the Mac, whereas the UK Mac says that those same viruses do not affect Mac OS X.

This difference is important. It shows that Apple is refining the text of each advert, making them more explicit in their meaning. For the first time, they’re highlighting the difference between the software, not just the hardware. All this is gearing up for Leopard I expect.

After running past this advert on the bus shelter, and being more than a little surprised, it struck me that we are witnessing something of a change in Apple. This is the first time I’ve ever, EVER seen a bus shelter advert for the Mac in the UK, and by the looks of it, it’s a nationwide campaign.

Such a high-profile campaign as this, to be given a UK push is unheard of. Coupled with the anti-Vista jibes on the Apple website, it seems that Steve Jobs is finally ready. Now he has a first-class, portable OS, and first-class hardware in place, he’s ready to go for it – he’s ready to attack Microsoft.

There’s a technique in marketing which states that there is no point in launching a huge advertising campaign, unless the product you are selling (and the customer experience that surrounds it) is the best you can provide. If your product is second rate, then the extra attention that your advertising will give you, will actually damage your sales and image, doing more harm than good.

Apple has been playing the waiting game, waiting until all the pieces are in place, before they launch their long-overdue attack on the Microsoft monopoly.

If this continues, (and I can only see Apple getting more aggressive against Microsoft when Leopard launches, with all it’s tie-ins to the iPhone, the inevitable new iPods, & TV), Microsoft will then be forced to launch it’s final nuke, the one it’s been threatening Apple with for years, the one that started all this.

They will cancel Microsoft Office for Mac – with some pointless reason attached of course.

Many years ago, Phil Schiller (the then CEO of Apple), gave away the crown jewel of Apple (the Mac GUI), because Microsoft threatened to pull Mac Office. This allowed Microsoft to get away with launching the travesty that was Windows 95, and it all went downhill for the Mac after that.

I wouldn’t worry though, by that time it will be too late for Microsoft. Apple will have the Intel version of Office released, which should last Apple at least 3 years before it would need to be updated anyway.

That will be the year 2010. By which time the tech landscape could be very different indeed.

Microsoft to license Office GUI for free…?

Microsoft, purveyor’s of all that’s bad in design generally, have surprised many by offering to license, for free, the new interface for the next version of Windows Office.

This piece of news has passed most news outlets by, as slightly interesting but nothing to write home about.

Many people have concentrated on the irrelevance of Microsoft trying to license the ‘look a feel’ of a GUI. This is something that Apple tried and failed to do many years ago.

Microsoft references certain, “pending utility and design patent claims, copyrights, trade dress and trademark rights” in the license, but common sense states that these copyright issues are a smokescreen for a deeper more subtler reasoning from Redmond.

The official statement from Microsoft contains a clue as to why Microsoft is doing this, “Our goal is to help people so that we end up with a consistent experience across the set of programs that use the ribbon, that use this paradigm, much the same way as Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines established the paradigm of how menus work 15 years ago.”

Note the Apple reference, and this is where our favourite fruit company comes in.

Apple has been the thorn in the side for Microsoft for many years. Do you think Redmond like being seen to be playing catch-up with Apple all the time? This has been illustrated perfectly with the comparisons of Vista to Tiger/Leopard.

After years of work, and countless rethinks & redesigns, all Redmond’s hard work is dismissed even before it is released, as looking ‘very like Mac OS X’.

This must really piss them off. Apparently, when Microsoft envisaged their ‘iPod killer’ – the Zune – the way in which they motivated their Zune team, was to show them that very old video (when Steve Jobs had hair no less), stating that, “Microsoft have no taste.”

We all know how the Zune turned out, but that is by-the-by – I bet a similar discussion has been held over the Mac’s OS.

Microsoft want to differentiate the Windows GUI from Apple’s, and their new, “contribution to the user interface community” as they put it, is the ‘ribbon’.

But it’s not only differentiation that they are aiming for. The ‘ribbon’ effectively does away with the menu metaphor, and relies solely on icons to select parameters. This seems a little odd, a little difficult to grasp, a little, well, crap.

Menus have been one of the most consistent, widely used and most user-friendly aspect of a computers GUI since their inception way back at Xerox Parc. They got it right first time, there is no easier way to navigate through an applications features.

This hasn’t stopped Microsoft though. They are not interested in ease-of-use, or what’s best for the user. They are trying to change the fundamental principles behind a modern computer’s user interface, so they can call it their own, and take it to a place of their choosing, not Apple’s.

They envisage a day where the entire Windows OS and all applications therein use the ribbon metaphor. They are trying to enforce a new GUI on its users not because it’s easy or it enhances the user’s experience, but because it’s in their interests.

A the centre of the Macintosh user experience are menus. It’s one of the big differences between us and them – there’s a menu at the top all the time, which changes dependent on which application you’re in. Even the desktop has a menu, this differs greatly from Windows, where there’s a menu at the top of each window.

Once Microsoft have brainwashed all those poor Windows users into thinking that the ribbon is a better metaphor than the menu, (and they already have a few converts – some commentators are saying that it takes a few days to get the hang of it, and then you get used to it), then Apple will find it even harder to win switchers because the user experience will be totally different.

Then Microsoft have the upper hand on interface design, again, not because it’s better but because they will have the user’s on their side.

One fly in the ointment you might think is that developers might not take the bait. If developers see that menus are a better way of using their application, then they’ll stick to them. But I don’t think so.

Way back, when Adobe Acrobat Reader was first created, it had menus and pallets to manipulate documents. At around version 2 or 3, they changed the interface to what it is today, a confusing morass of little icons on square strips, with little or no indication of what they do. Their reason for this? They looked into who downloaded the Reader, what their favourite application was, and mirrored that user interface. That application was Word.

That’s why, today we are left with Acrobat’s appalling user interface – because of Microsoft useless GUI design.

Mr Jensen Harris, group program manager of the Microsoft Office user experience team, is quoted as saying, “we would like to see it [the ribbon] used as widely as possible because we are proud of our work.”

Everything Microsoft does has an ulterior, unspoken subtext – this is no exception.

Going Office cold turkey…

The office move that I’m currently experiencing (I’m moving offices – physically), is going reasonably smoothly, at least for me as a Mac user.

Working near a standard PC user however, has demonstrated to me the gulf that separates a Mac user from a PC user. Over the past week, this PC user has had to call IT support at least once a day. But this aspect, although entertaining to a Mac user, is not the focus of this article.

One thing that struck me is that they haven’t installed Microsoft Office on this PC. No, in order to cut costs, they’ve installed Open Office. This is part, I have learned, of a drive to rid themselves of Microsoft Office entirely.

PDF has supplanted Word as the format that which documents must be formatted in for emailing purposes in my company. This is, in part, because we deal with a lot of overseas companies in the Far East and they communicate almost solely in PDF.

They aren’t giving up on Windows completely (they’re still a Windows-centric organisation, using Microsoft SQL Server, and various other proprietary Microsoft products), but Office is definitely on the way out. The writing seems to be on the wall for Microsoft here, how they will react is anyone’s guess – but it’ll probably be sneaky, underhand and potentially illegal.

Their first assault is to supplant the PDF with their own proprietary format. Good luck with that BG. I’m sure more will follow when Vista finally materialise.

My department has used the Mac version of Office since it was set up. I’ve used it in every job I’ve ever had, not because I like it, (I absolutely hate Word & Powerpoint, but love Excel), but because I felt that it kept me compatible with the rest of the company I was working for, and the outside world.

It also kept the Windows IT department off my back, so they had one less reason for recommending the replacement of all my Mac’s with PC’s – not that this has ever occurred. I’m reasonably lucky, but I think it’s more to do with the fact that I’m a pretty good tech guy on the Mac or PC, and PC IT people are uncertain they’d win an argument with me.

This has resulted in a chance to also rid myself of Mac Office completely. So I dutifully downloaded NeoOffice, installed in on a test Mac to see if I could really do it.
Word, as I said, I’ve always hated. I only use it to read other people’s documents. Indeed, when creating a text document that other PC’s may need to read, I always start off in the Mac’s TextEdit, and when it’s finished, open it in Word & re-save. I know you can do this all from TextEdit, but I take this extra step, just to be sure. Word document’s open fine in NeoOffice.

Powerpoint, gladly, I’ve never had to use much. I need it to open other people’s Powerpoint documents. Strangely, one of the main uses I have for it is to open PC users Powerpoint documents to print them, because for some reason Powerpoint’s printing on the PC is very flaky. Powerpoint document’s open fine in NeoOffice also.

Excel however I use daily, and have for years. A lot of my work is connected with marketing, and I use Excel to sort address files, do budgets, get price lists, perform calculations on address file databases and numerous other tasks.

Of all the individual suites that Office contains, Excel is the yardstick by which I will measure NeoOffice.

The results of this are mixed. Although NeoOffice opens and renders quite complicated spreadsheets ok, it is only useful for the most simple of documents.

NeoOffice’s speed is its biggest issue. Spreadsheets seem to lag a bit sometimes, and opening big Excel documents with multiple pages and complex calculations can take minutes rather than seconds.

Re-saving these documents in Excel format, makes little difference, however re-saving in NeoOffice format, makes a big difference, the document loads almost immediately. However this screws up your file compatibility, which is the main reason for switching in the first place.

Apart from that, things seem fine. Although I will dip into Excel occasionally (mainly when I’m in a hurry), I can safely say that I will never upgrade Microsoft Office again, nor will I buy it for any new Mac. I really think that, in the long term, Office’s days are numbered both on the Mac & PC.

This all begs the question, does the OpenOffice movement open a door for Apple to rid themselves of their Microsoft dependancy for good?

Apple are very careful to remain best buddies with Microsoft, because in the past it has been quite rightly observed that if Microsoft pulled the Mac version of Office, the platform would be mortally wounded. However are we now seeing a faint glimmer of hope with NeoOffice?

Apple have released Pages & Keynote, which can be vaguely compared with Word & Powerpoint, and rumour has it that ‘Numbers’ is on its way, which would also compete with Excel. But these are not in direct competition with Office. iWork are commendable, feature-laden applications, but they are no Office replacement in the eyes of business.
You must remain compatible with Office, or you are not taken seriously in the business world. With businesses now moving towards OpenOffice, is there an opening here for Apple?

What about keeping iWork as an Office replacement for the consumer, but have an Apple-sanctioned and supported version of OpenOffice installed free on every Mac? I don’t think that it would cost Apple much in development costs (with Apple’s knowledge I think they could iron out the speed issue), and would allow them to remain compatible with the business world, and showing that they take business seriously.