14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has until now kept Office a Windows-exclusive product, but people close to the matter claim that the company might soon reverse its decision and bring the productivity suite on other platforms too.
Rick Sherlund, software analyst at Nomura, told Financial Times that locking down Office isn’t quite the right decision right now and that the new CEO of the company that will take over from Steve Ballmer will have to change that.
“They should be aggressively pushing that business rather than leaving the way open to competition,” the analyst said in a statement. “[This] would be my first suggestion for new management,” he said.
This isn’t the first time when Microsoft is advised to bring Office on other platforms too, but the company is believed to be trying to keep the product exclusively available on Windows to give its products an advantage on the market.
For example, the Surface RT is equipped by default with Office 2013, which gives the tablet a productivity bonus in the fight against Apple’s iPad and the Nexus.
Word is that Microsoft might bring Office on Linux and Android next year, so until then, users have no other option than to rely on the web-based version that only works with an Internet connection.