Microsoft And Apple Agree On Office For iOS

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Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) have come together to provide MS Office on iPhone. Microsoft has launched an official app for iPhone through which iPhone users will be able to browse and edit documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Those who have subscribed to Office 365 can access the app. The Office 365 from Microsoft is a web-based platform and users can use the office features through cloud.

Microsoft And Apple Agree On Office For iOS

This is the latest app which Microsoft has designed for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS, and to an extent this collaboration hints at a direction indicated at the WWDC, where an announcement was made that the default Search engine for Siri will be Bing, instead of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG).

Microsoft And Apple Will Gain

Benefits will be reaped by both companies. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is expected to get more subscriptions after the official app for iPhone, whereas the best package from Microsoft is for £10.10 a month, which means that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) will also get its due whenever a new subscription is added.

Both companies are, however, silent on the share of profit they will take in.  However, if the deal is similar to the deal done by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) for iTune purchases then the cut of the iPhone maker will be 30 percent.

Features Offered

The official app allows editing of documents and functions of the app are well contained within the frame of iPhone.

The app can allow the user to create both Excel and Word Document, but PowerPoint presentations cannot be created. According to the claims of Microsoft, the files will “look like the originals”, where all the features will be incorporated including media content such as pictures, animations, charts and SmartArt.

The user will be able to save his files in the cloud through SkyDrive, and then it can be transferred to many devices. Any alteration which the user makes in the document, will be updated on all the devices. The user can access and read files from where he stopped on any device.

Limited Appeal

There were talks that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) would launch Office on iOS in few years. However, the availability of Office on iOS is expected to have less appeal for the 350 million iPhone users globally, because in the previous month Microsoft claimed that Office 365 has 1 million subscribers.

Prior to this, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) pre-installed Office 365 on the Windows Phone to garner some market share. The market share of Windows Operating system was, however, just 3.2 percent in the first quarter.

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