Apple announced that its iWork suite is free for all new Mac and iOS device purchases, but it sounds like you couldn't even pay Microsoft to use what it calls "watered down" apps.
"iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought," wrote Frank Shaw, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Communications, of the Office competitor in an official blog post.
"When I see Apple drop the price of their struggling, lightweight productivity apps, I don't see a shot across our bow, I see an attempt to play catch up."
The Microsoft executive doesn't think that Apple has quite caught up, either. He blasts the Cupertino company for its lack of true multitasking and a precision input like the Touch Cover 2 for Surface 2 tablets.
Apple was rumored to be testing an iPad keyboard accessory along the lines of the Touch Cover, but the fabled attachment was a no-show at yesterday's iPad Air event.
Surface productivity is much deeper than iPad
At the same time Shaw slammed Apple's iPad press conference, he lauded ample praise on his company's new line of Surface tablets and its Office software.
"Surface and Surface 2 both include Office, the world's most popular, most powerful productivity software for free and are priced below both the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively," he noted.
"Apple's decision to build the price of their less popular and less powerful iWork into their tablets [is] not a very big (or very good) deal."
Shaw wrote that Microsoft saw too many people carrying around two devices - one for work and one for play. Surface control-alt-deletes the extra cost, weight and complexity of dual carrying.
"Helping folks kill time on a tablet is relatively easy," he explained.
"Helping people be productive on a tablet is a little trickier. It takes an understanding of how peop le actually work, how they get things done, and how to best support the way they do things already."
Media are caught in the crossfire
Microsoft "understands how people work better than anyone else on the planet," Shaw opined.
But, in his eyes, that belief wasn't ubiquitous among journalists writing about yesterday's Apple event.
"It's much harder to get work done on a device that lacks precision input and a desktop for true side-by-side multitasking," he wrote. "You wouldn't know that from reading some of the coverage I've read today."
Perhaps attendees at Apple's event were required to work on iOS devices that don't allow them to have two windows open for side-by-side comparisons, so let me help them out by highlighting [the benefits of Surface and Office]."
Shaw continued with more Surface and Office praise and ended his blog post with a smiley emoticon, which even with all of the press criticism, alway s makes up for everything in life.
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