David Weiss on Numbers

David Weiss:

Allowing anyone to read and write your file format is a bold move because it says in essence, “We don’t need a locked down file format to compete. The format can be available for everyone, and we’ll compete on the ease of use and efficiency of our applications. We have what we think is the best interface for reading, creating and managing Office documents, but if someone has what they think is a better way to build Office documents, wonderful, we welcome it!”

What Apple has done with Keynote, Pages and Numbers is exactly this.

I suspect many would argue about just how easy Microsoft has made it to read and write the new Office XML file formats, but the point holds. File compatibility leads to competition, and competition leads to better software.

★ Wednesday, 15 August 2007