OneNote Mobile for Android is now available worldwide
For all of you who've been asking (and patiently waiting) for a version of OneNote for your Android phones, we have great news: OneNote Mobile for Android is now available! Download it from the Android Market app store today!
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft is extending the cross-platform push it began in December, when it shipped OneNote for the iPad alongside word of a coming Lync app. The Android release follows the same logic: put the note-taking flagship wherever the users already are.
First-order effects
- Android owners can now download OneNote Mobile worldwide from the Android Market, giving Microsoft's note-taking app reach into the platform Gartner measured at more than 50% of Q3 2011 smartphone sales and Google counted at 3.7 million activations over the December 24–25 weekend alone.
Second-order effects
- Shipping OneNote on Android removes one reason for users to treat Windows Phone as the only place to get Microsoft's productivity tools, sharpening the question of what remains exclusive to Microsoft's own mobile OS as Android's rise pressures rivals like Nokia, Apple and RIM.
Third-order effects
- If the iPad-then-Android sequence holds, Microsoft's Office franchise is drifting from a Windows-anchored moat toward a cross-platform service layer, with individual apps deployed opportunistically onto whichever platform holds the install base.
The trend: Productivity software vendors are following their users onto rival mobile platforms rather than holding apps back as exclusives for their own operating systems.