Microsoft exec: More multi-platform mobile products coming in 2012
Summary: Watch for Microsoft to continue to roll out more of its productivity wares on non-Microsoft platforms in 2012, an official with the Office 365 team says. — It was a week of rapid-fire releases of Microsoft apps …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second data point in a deliberate arc: back in October 2011, Microsoft laid out plans to bring its BI tools to iOS, Android, and Windows 8 devices, and an Office 365 official now confirms more multi-platform mobile products are queued for 2012. The same week made the intent concrete — SkyDrive apps for iPhone and Windows Phone shipped on December 13, putting Microsoft's personal cloud on a rival handset.
The timing matters internally as well: Andy Lees was removed from atop the Windows Phone organization on December 14, so the cross-platform productivity push is unfolding alongside a leadership shake-up in the very division whose exclusivity it softens.
First-order effects
- iPhone and Android users gain direct access to Microsoft productivity services — SkyDrive already, with Office 365-linked wares promised through 2012 — without buying a Microsoft device.
- Windows Phone loses one of its differentiators: exclusive access to Microsoft's own productivity stack, at exactly the moment its leadership is being reshuffled.
Second-order effects
- Apple and Google capture the platform-side value: Microsoft's premium apps deepen their ecosystems' appeal to business users while Microsoft absorbs the porting cost.
- Rival productivity vendors on iOS and Android face a well-funded incumbent arriving with subscription pricing and enterprise relationships, compressing the room for standalone mobile office apps.
Third-order effects
- If the 2012 cadence holds, Microsoft's revenue logic shifts from coupling software to Windows licenses toward selling subscriptions into whatever device the customer holds — making the platform-agnostic services business, not the OS, the anchor of the company's mobile strategy.
The trend: Microsoft is decoupling its productivity franchise from Windows and re-platforming it as cross-device subscriptions, one iOS and Android release at a time.