Exclusive: Microsoft Office for iPhone, iPad, and Android revealed
Office Mobile will arrive in early 2013 — Microsoft's Office for iPad, iPhone, and Android is a reality. Although Office Mobile has been rumored and reportedly spotted in the wild, Microsoft has remained persistently quiet about its plans for the product.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft had floated the iPad possibility in 2010, then an October report said an iOS and Android release was on its way. The planned early-2013 launch turns that reported cross-platform Office roadmap into a stated product direction.
Office is Microsoft’s core productivity franchise, so placing it on iPhone, iPad, and Android makes mobile-device access—not a single operating system—the relevant distribution question.
First-order effects
- Microsoft is preparing Office Mobile for iPhone, iPad, and Android users, extending its productivity software to devices outside its own platform.
- iPhone, iPad, and Android users gain a planned Microsoft Office option for mobile document work in early 2013.
Second-order effects
- Apple’s mobile devices and Android handsets become additional routes into Microsoft’s Office ecosystem, requiring Microsoft to compete for usage on platforms it does not control.
- The launch raises the value of Office availability across mobile devices, rather than limiting the product’s reach to Microsoft-controlled endpoints.
Third-order effects
- If Microsoft maintains cross-platform Office support, its Office moat shifts from operating-system exclusivity toward the software’s reach and user familiarity across devices.
- The move is an early marker of platform rivalry giving way to distribution on competitors’ devices when a software franchise is more valuable than exclusivity.
The trend: Microsoft is recomposing Office’s competitive moat around cross-platform availability as mobile computing spreads across iOS and Android.