Redmond’s apps enjoying terrific success on iOS

Jan 25, 2016 06:32 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is still working hard to become a more important player in the mobile business, but while the company keeps struggling to get Windows 10 Mobile right and release more competitive devices, its apps are enjoying a huge success on rival platforms.

At this point, most of the apps developed by the Redmond-based software giant are already available on iOS (and many are missing from its very own Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile), and what’s more important is that they have quickly become some of the most downloaded in the entire store.

Living proof is none other than the Outlook client. Clearly one of the best email clients available on mobile devices right now, be they powered by Android or iOS, Outlook is actually the rebranded version of Accompli, a company that Microsoft took over last year.

Nevertheless, Outlook is often described as the best email client on iOS and there’s a good reason for that: it works impressively fast, it’s not at all a battery hog, looks quite appealing, and has support for the majority of services currently in use. So it’s no wonder that since launch, Outlook has received more than 19,000 ratings in the Apple App Store, with an overall rating of five stars.

The Selfie app

Living proof of the success that Microsoft’s experiencing on Apple’s playground is also the Selfie app that the company launched only a couple of weeks ago.

According to Peggy Dai, program manager at Microsoft, the app has already registered half of million downloads since its debut, and these figures are expected to grow as the company rolls out new updates and promotes the app.

“Together with the research team we will introduce more innovative features to the app, and expand availability on more platforms,” Dai said, revealing that the Selfie app could soon arrive on Windows 10 Mobile too.

The Microsoft Office success

Another clear sign that Microsoft feels like home on iOS is the success that the Word app, part of the Office suite, is having among iPhone users.

At this point, Microsoft Word has nearly 29,500 ratings in the store, again with a maximum of five out of five stars, even though this app comes with a big catch: it requires an Office 365 subscription for editing capabilities, so the freeware version is just a document viewer.

Microsoft Word in the App Store, see the number of ratings
Microsoft Word in the App Store, see the number of ratings

Still ignoring Windows 10 Mobile?

Seeing Microsoft enjoying such a huge success in the Apple App Store is certainly a good thing, but when looking at its own platform, there’s definitely a gap that the company should fill in very soon.

Most of the apps that the company launched in the last few months for iPhone and iPad users are not yet available on Windows Phone or Windows 10 Mobile and this is one of the reasons some people decided to jump ship. Others decided to stick with Windows 10 Mobile for a little bit longer, hoping that Microsoft could at some point show a little bit more interest in its own platform.

Windows 10 Mobile is not here yet in stable form (although a supposed RTM version runs on Lumia 950 and 950 XL devices), so it’ll be interesting to see how Microsoft convinces users to adopt its new operating system when most of its apps are already available on iOS too (some exclusively).

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OneDrive running on an iPhone
Microsoft Word in the App Store, see the number of ratings
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