The rivalry between the two giants: Apple and Microsoft has been going on for so many years now. So when Apple launched the iPad last year, everyone expected that the much exalted business suite, Microsoft Office might not be available for it. Now, almost two years after iPad’s release, we have reports suggesting that Microsoft is finally working on making a lighter version of Office suite available for iPad, that would run on the iOS platform.
Currently, with over 35 million iPad users, Apple holds a massive 80 percent market share in the tablet world. Launching Office suite for iPad could mean a huge amount of revenue for Microsoft. News is on rounds that the suite would be available from late 2012 at a price of just $10. Although there has been no official confirmation on this from the Microsoft, it appears that they can no longer afford to lose out on a market that’s going to be the future of PCs. So considering that, it is already high time and this move could lead Microsoft into a market where, thus far, their contribution has been of trivial significance.
Currently Apple has its own suite of applications called as iWork suite which is kind of similar to the Microsoft Office. Although the suite works just fine… lets be honest, we have been used to Office applications for more than a decade now and nothing could be as comfortable as working on something that we are already used to. So the decision to launch an Office suite app for iOS would not just be profitable to Microsoft, but it would just add another jewel to Apple’s crown. With the addition of Office suite that most iPad users were missing badly, Apple could literally call its tablet a complete one.
Microsoft that has an annual revenue of over $60 billion has not been able to capture a good amount of market share in the Smartphone market, as mentioned earlier. Phones operating on the Windows based OS have not really clicked the way they would have expected but this move to launch the Office suite for iPad could generate an estimated revenue of $15 billion. Luckily, the Microsoft Office for Windows PCs and laptops is the second most popular application in terms of revenue for Microsoft. So the estimated figure of $15 billion does make enough sense.
Millions of users are already thrilled to hear the news and the anticipation would only grow as the time goes on. It is already confirmed that Microsoft would be releasing its full -fledged Office suite for the Mac by 2013. Does the news of Office suite for iPad (too) means that Microsoft is finally shedding its windows-centric image? Things are really looking good for Microsoft for the near future as next year they would be rolling out Windows 8 too. We have to wait and let the things unfold. Hopefully, we would be seeing Microsoft Office on an iPad in a couple of years.
About the author: Kate is a blogger and writer. She loves reading cell phone reviews. Beside this she is fond of gadgets. She recently wrote an article on Celestron Telescopes.
Recent Comments