Tim Cook welcomes Office to the App Store, but questions the strategy behind its long delay

posted by Alan F.

Apr 23, 2014, 9:22 PM

Tim Cook welcomes Office to the App Store, but questions the strategy behind its long delay

Apple released its fiscal second quarter earnings on Wednesday, which means that CEO Tim Cook got to answer a ton of questions from analysts. With iPad sales in the quarter disappointing Wall Street, the tablet was the subject of a number of analysts' questions. One of the questions was about the recently launched Microsoft Office suite for the Apple iPad. Microsoft had kept the software away from the iPad so that its Microsoft Surface slates could have an advantage over Apple's tablets.

Cook called Office "a key franchise," and welcomed Microsoft to the App Store. The executive also called it a "good thing" for the iPad in the enterprise. But Cook also questioned Microsoft's strategy. "If it had been done earlier, it would’ve been better for Microsoft frankly," the CEO said. One analyst earlier this year, said that the Redmond based company was losing $2.5 billion a year in revenue by keeping the Office suite away from the iPad.

While the Microsoft Office Suite is a free download from the App Store, it only allows users to view older documents and make presentations. To do the fun stuff, like editing older documents and creating new ones, Apple iPad users will need a subscription to Office 365. Microsoft has just released a personal version of Office 365 for $69. That includes 20GB of SkyDrive cloud storage and 60 minutes of free Skype calls. The $99 version of Office 365 brings support for up to five iPads.

source: TechCrunch

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17 Comments

16. Hlorri

Posts: 40; Member since: May 07, 2008

*Yawn*. MS Office is so.... last decade. Even in corporations - the most conservative at that - they realize that long term document retention is not feasible as long as you're held hostage to Microsoft's self interests. In the long run, Open Standards (incl. OSS) ALWAYS wins out. Always.

posted on Apr 24, 2014, 12:41 PM 1

17. Edmund

Posts: 656; Member since: Jul 13, 2012

Congratulations ! You win the Darwin award for the day

posted on Apr 24, 2014, 7:50 PM 0

15. jroc74

Posts: 6023; Member since: Dec 30, 2010

Why was MS keeping it away? My theory is that MS wanted WP, Surface to have an edge over the iOS and Android... If WP, Surface was doing better....there might have been an even longer delay....or it might have never came to them at all.

posted on Apr 24, 2014, 7:18 AM 0

14. Just.Saying

Posts: 132; Member since: Apr 04, 2013

Does this dude have real teeth or false ?

posted on Apr 24, 2014, 3:49 AM 0

5. joey_sfb

Posts: 6794; Member since: Mar 29, 2012

Android has the office editing feature for free. Very confused. Both should be free.

posted on Apr 23, 2014, 9:47 PM 2

6. jellmoo

Posts: 2687; Member since: Oct 31, 2011

The version for Android (and iPhone for that matter) is a very bare bones application. You can make some small edits and the like, but you don't have the functionality to make large scale changes. The iPad version is very full featured, much closer to what is present on the desktop.

posted on Apr 23, 2014, 9:56 PM 2

9. marbovo

Posts: 658; Member since: May 16, 2013

thanks for the heads up

posted on Apr 23, 2014, 10:10 PM 0

11. joey_sfb

Thanks for the information. I like Google Quick Office more compared to Office Mobile. Even desktop office I only use 10% of its feature.

posted on Apr 23, 2014, 10:18 PM 1

13. 0xFFFF

Posts: 3806; Member since: Apr 16, 2014

Glad to know Microsoft crippled Android Office. I tried downloading this and found it wasn't even supported for my tablet. Thank goodness the tablet I use the most came with Polaris Office. It works just fine for my limited needs to view/edit Office documents on the tablet.