Few professional rivalries can match that of Microsoft and Apple.
As well-known as the founders themselves, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, for many years there was a broad line drawn in the sand between these two tech giants – with Microsoft on one side, and Apple on the other.
The split between the two companies has been so vast, in fact, that even today you might hear someone ask, “But does it support Mac?” when discussing Microsoft’s latest product, Microsoft 365.
Just to address that concern head-on: yes, Microsoft 365 offers the same set of apps on Mac as it does on Windows – with a couple of small differences with the desktop apps, such as Access and Publisher being Windows-only. That said, the cloud-based versions of the apps are identical whether you’re on Mac or Windows. Want to really push the boat out? You can even install the Microsoft 365 apps on your iOS or Android device.
So, what does all this mean? Essentially, Microsoft has flung the doors open and now practically every popular consumer operating system is supported by their flagship software.
So why the big change? Where did it all happen and, perhaps more importantly, why?
Let’s play detective.
Big glasses, big sweaters, and the early days of Microsoft Office
The 90s was a wonderful time.
Alongside all the brightly coloured clothing and the unmistakeable sound of 90s pop music, something else was slowly gaining ground: home computing. By the time the PC was becoming a mainstay in households across the UK with Windows 95, the Microsoft Office product was already fairly well-developed.
And while Office 95 was the suite’s big break, its story really began much earlier, being officially unveiled by Bill Gates at COMDEX in Las Vegas on August 1st, 1988.
From here, the infrastructure was built upon until Microsoft developed and released very basic (but functional) versions of each productivity app: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Mail for Windows 3.0 and 3.1. Mac versions of these apps were also developed and released around the same time, so – at least at this point in time – Office on Mac and Windows were broadly in line with one another.
But these similarities didn’t last, and it was only a matter of time until the Windows product became the star, while the Mac was somewhat side-lined.
But why?
The answer is simple: the home computing revolution.
The coming apart and the (eventual) coming together
With the launch of Windows 95, and with it the release of the newly bundled productivity suite, Office 95, Microsoft began to diverge from support for other platforms – namely, the Macintosh. Windows was now a household name and Microsoft began to focus more inwardly than ever before.
While it continued to develop versions of Microsoft Office for Mac, parity was certainly not forefront in Microsoft’s mind as it began to leverage the brand power of Microsoft Office to push installations of Windows.
Nowhere is this divergence clearer than in the numbers:
- Between 1998 and 2020, Microsoft released ten different versions of Microsoft Office (not including 365) for the Microsoft Windows platform.
- Between 1998 and 2020, Microsoft released just seven versions of Microsoft Office (not including 365) for the Apple Mac platform.
It wasn’t just in the number of releases that Mac fell behind, but also in the feature set, as it always lagged behind the Windows release. For example:
- Office for Mac 2011 did not support the OpenDocument Format, whereas Office 2010 for Windows did, meaning the Mac version could simply not open the same files.
- Office for Mac 2011 didn’t support any right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.
- Office 2016 for Mac had lacking support for SharePoint, meaning it was much easier to share files with colleagues using Windows rather than Mac.
- Microsoft Access and Microsoft Publisher were full-featured Office apps which were simply never made available in Mac versions of Microsoft Office.
Okay, you probably get the point by now.
Essentially, for a long stretch of time – and until very recently, in fact – Windows versions of Microsoft Office were superior to their Mac counterparts.
In 2020? All that has changed. We’ve now reached a point where every core Office app – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – can be used on Windows, Mac, iPhone or iPad, or even an Android smartphone. And that’s all thanks to the power and flexibility of the SaaS-powered Microsoft 365 suite – the cloud-based, cross-platform evolution of Microsoft Office.
So, why the ethos change? Why is that Microsoft now champions cross-platform applications and access for all? Well, it’s all about listening to the consumer…
The rise of SaaS and BYOD
There’s been a subtle cultural shift over recent years as we’ve all grown to embrace technology across all areas of our lives.
We’re all very familiar with jumping from device to device, phone to laptop, PC to Mac, and having access to the same selection of features and apps from each one. At the workplace, the idea of ‘Bring Your Own Device’, or BYOD, is becoming more and commonplace, meaning there are usually multiple platforms or operating systems in play at any one office.
This trend did cause something of a problem when it came to software, because staff would find that they weren’t able to open a file on Office for Mac which worked perfectly well on Windows. The solution was two-fold. First came SaaS, or Software as a Service, which essentially refers to cloud apps which operate within a browser and do not depend on a particular operating system. This meant that apps were suddenly accessible to us without a dedicated platform – all we needed was a web browser.
The term “frictionless” gets thrown around a lot, but it’s really this concept which has driven the Microsoft team to create something which is truly cross-platform. Consumers realised that they had far more choice when it came to cross-platform supported apps, like Dropbox, which they could use on any device.
If Microsoft were to stay relevant and maintain their position in the productivity app space, they knew they had to produce something which would work on almost any device and deliver almost the exact same experience.
Enter, Office 365.
Microsoft 365 and the frictionless, cloud-based future
Beginning as Office 365 in June 2011 before a name change to the more all-encompassing Microsoft 365 in 2020, the latest version of the Microsoft Office suite now offers choice right out of the box. Want to install the core Office apps to your desktop? No problem. Prefer to access web-based versions of the apps in a browser? Go for it. Or perhaps you want to make changes on the go with your smartphone? You can do that too.
In plain English? Once you sign up for a Microsoft 365 subscription, you’ll be able to use the apps you know and love – including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneDrive and, yes, even Teams – from whichever device you’re using at the time.
The concept behind Microsoft 365 is a simple one: to reduce the friction you feel when opening files or collaborating online with colleagues, and to enable anywhere-access to your files and apps. No longer will you have to think, I wish I’d brought my Windows machine, because Microsoft 365 is available on Mac – and it’s totally feature-complete. Not only that, but, because it’s a SaaS product, the Microsoft team is always pushing out over-the-air updates seamlessly, meaning your installed versions are always up to date and always totally secure.
It’s a far cry from the days of having Microsoft Office installed on a single machine with a single set of features for a decade. Instead, it’s a living, breathing productivity suite which can power your business across many different disciplines – from email to word processing to data analysis to cloud storage… the list goes on.
Just to really bring sharp focus to how far Microsoft has come since the days of its rivalry with Apple, here’s a quick rundown of the platforms you can install Microsoft 365 onto today:
- Windows 8 or higher
- macOS 10.3 or later
- iOS smartphones or tablets (iOS 12.0 or later)
- Android smartphones or tablets (6.0 and up)
- Windows Phone (if you can find one)
Does your business run on Mac? Get Support can help
If you’ve been under the impression that Microsoft 365 is the exclusive reserve of Windows machines, it’s time to explore your options.
Whether you want to boost your company’s productivity with the very latest versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in Microsoft 365 for Business, collaborate with colleagues via Microsoft Teams, or access your files from anywhere with Microsoft OneDrive – it’s now all possible whether you’re on Mac or Windows.
As a Direct Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, the team at Get Support can help you pick the perfect business package for your business, then help you deploy it across your company – whether you’re remote or in-office.
Want to know more? Get in touch today to discuss Microsoft 365 for Mac (or any other platform) on 01865 59 4000.
