Microsoft Considering Apple’s App Store

[CommanderFrank]

Microsoft may be joining the App Store bandwagon, selling its Office Suite and components through Apple according to Amanda Lefebre of Microsoft. Hell is freezing over.

Presented a choice between accepting a 30 percent cut in revenue, or risking having that revenue not exist at all, 70 percent sounds pretty good.

 

[compslckr]

I bet they would do pretty well if they offered the office package in pieces. Most people don't need/want excel or powerpoint, but the "need" word.

If they could sell Word for $30, I bet quite a few new mac customers would purchase it.

 

[Marlfox]

I wonder what percent of windows phone users would have bought an iphone instead of a windows phone for mobile office. Also, being forced to give 30% to your competition is pretty harsh just to exist in a locked down market.

Scenario: Rock and a hard place.

 

[phide]

I wonder what percent of windows phone users would have bought an iphone instead of a windows phone for mobile office.

The article is about the Mac App Store, not the iOS App Store.

 

[Azhar]

The article is about the Mac App Store, not the iOS App Store.

I would have missed that little tidbit, thanks for the heads up. It's not like Office isn't already available on Macs. If anything, this would bring even more awareness to the Mac mass who only know about iWork or whatever the Mac Office software is called.

As for iOS, I'm quite content with QuickOffice.

 

[WaltC]

But, Microsoft is apparently giving serious thought to offering the Microsoft Office suite through the Mac App Store. All Things Digital's Ina Fried quotes Microsoft's Amanda Lefebvre stating, "It's something we are looking at," adding, "It's something we haven't ruled out," she said. "We just have to see how that relates to our business."
...

The alternative might be worse for Microsoft, though. As Mac users embrace the app culture and come to rely on the Mac App Store to find the tools they need, the absence of Microsoft Office from the mix could lead many of them to seek out alternatives.

Presented a choice between accepting a 30 percent cut in revenue, or risking having that revenue not exist at all, 70 percent sounds pretty good. Plus, Microsoft should be looking beyond the revenue from Microsoft Office itself, and consider the bigger picture.

Ina Fried--an Apple shill from way back who has always erroneously believed that he/she/it's exaggeration and distortion for Apple helps the company instead of hurts it--seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill, as usual. "Looking at" and "we haven't ruled it out" are, it seems to me, simply diplomatic ways of saying, "Hell no, we won't go!" Faint praise, indeed.

Secondly, there are no "alternatives" to Office, imo. There is certainly software that you can use instead of Office--but no real alternative exists. Besides, it is widely believed that if not for Microsoft's support of the Mac for years with Office and other software that Apple might indeed have gone belly up before Jobs had a chance to come back and transition the company away from personal computers into other devices and other markets. Mac users from way back are long accustomed to getting their Office--and, indeed, lots of other software--from places other than the Mac App store, so I think the only people confused here are the authors of these articles.

I very much doubt it to be in the realm of possibility that Microsoft might ever cede to Apple 30% of it's Office revenue--the notion is ludicrous. Don't know if either of these myopic authors realize it, but Office 10 was quite a cash cow for Microsoft this last quarter--no Apple App store required.

Last but not least, Microsoft is opening its own App Store and I'm quite sure that if Office is made available in an App Store, it will be the Microsoft App store that will be selling the OS X version of Office. Notice how the authors of these nutty pieces leave out very pertinent information--such as the fact that Microsoft is opening its own App Store? It's amazing, really, in how many ways we see the RDF implemented on almost a daily basis...

 

[markintosh13]

How much does it cost for manufacturing retail packages and to push it through distributors and retailers?

Giving up 30% for the Mac App Store to host the downloads and updates and avoid the traditional retail distribution channel sounds reasonable.

 

[phide]

Last but not least, Microsoft is opening its own App Store and I'm quite sure that if Office is made available in an App Store, it will be the Microsoft App store that will be selling the OS X version of Office.

You're suggesting that Microsoft is going to launch the Windows App Store on both Windows and OS X?

MS already sells Office for Mac for download through the Microsoft Store, by the way.

 

[timta2]

As with (almost) everything they do Microsoft will take Apple's idea and poorly implement it.

"Besides, it is widely believed that if not for Microsoft's support of the Mac for years with Office and other software that Apple might indeed have gone belly up before Jobs had a chance to come back and transition the company away from personal computers into other devices and other markets."

Your Apple history is a little fuzzy. Steve Jobs came back to Apple and helped with the release of the iMac (Personal Computer) along with the G3s. (This was years before the iPod was released (2001). That in addition to the loan Microsoft gave to Apple saved their ass. I'm not saying Office didn't help, but to say Office is what save Apple is simply incorrect.