Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft is moving away from the past practice of first releasing new versions of apps on their platform, with a touch version of Office being already released for iOS and Android tablets, but not on Windows. This has upset a lot of users that are still waiting for a touch-first version of the productivity suite for their Windows-powered devices.
The new strategy of Microsoft may seem to you like a bad idea, but it is actually about getting Office to where the most people are right now, which happens to be on iOS and Android. The company acknowledges that they only have 14 percent device market share but they are working hard on Windows 10 to hopefully change that, with a consumer preview coming this month.
Joe Belfiore has chosen to shed a bit of light into what’s in store for Windows Phone via his Weibo account. He reassured users of the platform that the Office team is still working on bringing the productivity suite to the OS, with a Chinese branch working on exclusive features for that country. The Microsoft executive didn’t mention an exact date, but said it would be before the Chinese New Year, because they need to align a bundle of announcements.
With Microsoft holding a Windows 10 event near the end of January, they could choose this venue to announce a touch friendly version of Office for Windows.
Office isn’t going to be enough to close the “app gap” that Windows Phone is suffering from, but Microsoft really needs to get it right for its own platform, if it hopes to improve adoption. Recently, the company has announced stats for the mobile operating system in hopes of convincing more developers to start creating apps.
Source: Weibo Via: WindowsBlogItalia