Microsoft CEO Nadella expected to finally admit holding Office for iPad hostage a failed strategy

10 years ago

“Satya Nadella, the Indian-born self-described cricket fanatic who took over as Microsoft Corp’s chief executive last month, makes his public debut on Thursday and is expected to go on the offensive right away with some bold strokes,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters. “When Nadella hosts his first major press conference this week, he’s likely to describe – if not officially launch – versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint designed for Apple Inc’s iPad, looking to cash in on a market worth up to $7 billion a year, according to Wall Street analysts.”

“Depending what Microsoft charges for Office on the iPad, and how many of the scores of millions – and rising – iPad users adopt it, it could rake in anywhere between $840 million to $6.7 billion a year in revenue, estimates Raimo Lenschow, an analyst at Barclays,” Rigby reports. “Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Nomura who has urged Microsoft to put its most lucrative franchise on the iPad for some time, welcomed the idea but was more cautious on the rewards. He estimates that an iPad Office would generate only $1 billion or so in new revenue a year, as many potential users will already have corporate licenses that can be converted to the new product. And it’s unclear how much of its revenue will be surrendered to Apple, which generally takes a 30 percent cut of app sales through its store.”

“‘This is something that should have happened a few years ago,’ said J.P. Gownder, an analyst at tech research firm Forrester. ‘Holding Office for iPad as a hostage in the tablet war didn’t work out well for them. They have to start to undo this negative behavior,'” Rigby reports. “Microsoft’s $7.2 billion deal to buy the handset unit of Nokia, now delayed in closing, is unpopular with many investors who view it as a doomed defensive play to curb Google Inc’s Android’s dominance in the smartphone market. It is ‘an acquisition not even a mother could love,’ according to Nomura’s Sherlund.”

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MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s strategy of holding back on Office for iPad is dead wrong, as we’ve been explaining for quite some time now.