CNNMoney.com has a story making the rounds this morning that quotes a Morgan Stanley analyst who says that Microsoft is potentially making a very costly mistake by not offering an iPad version of Office.
Two and a half billion dollars. That’s how much Morgan Stanley’s Adam Holt estimates Microsoft may be leaving on the table by not offering a full version of its Office suite (Word, Excel, etc.) on Apple’s iPads.
The only problem with this is that, by all accounts, Microsoft is going to release a version of Office for the iPad. The analyst may be seizing on a recent “no comment” Steve Ballmer issued when asked specifically about it, but there is pretty good indication that Office for iOS will be here soon.
And why wouldn’t it be? Customers want it, and I don’t think Microsoft, or any other company that has stockholders to answer to, would leave $2.5 billion in revenue on the table.
Microsoft’s bigger problem, if you want to call it that, is that while Office for iOS will be a sure-fire bestseller, it will also likely take market share and momentum away from their Windows 8-based Surface tablets.
We can debate in the comments section whether the Surface has any market share or momentum to take away.
Greg Bussmann
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“it will also likely take market share and momentum away from their Windows 8-based Surface tablets”
What momentum?
MS has wasted 5 years ignoring iOS/Android and now they face a devil’s choice:
1. Don’t sell Office for iOS/Android and continue to be a non-factor in the mobile space, allowing people to live full/productive lives without Office or Windows.
2. Sell Office for iOS/Android but you have to play by Apple/Google’s rules. I.e. Apple gets 30%, and the price will be closer to $20 – $30 instead of $200 – $300.
No matter which route MS takes, Office will never be a cash cow in the mobile space.
Great points. I agree with everything you said.
Thanks for reading and thanks for the comment.
$2.5 billion? Is that all? Microsoft can afford to leave that on the table to buy time for its fledgling mobile devices to gain traction.
It’s gambled away more dollars than that on dubious acquisitions.
It’s spent more heavily than that to subsidize Xbox while it was young and weak.
Microsoft’s goal is eventual dominance in any market it chooses to enter; some projects will fizzle and some will grow strong, but money will be no deterrent to the great charging bull.