Microsoft Office making its way to iOS has been an ongoing rumor for years now with a new report being published today that puts a dollar amount on how much the company is losing each year the application doesn’t receive an iOS version.
According to Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt, Microsoft is estimated to be losing $2.5 billion a year from potential iOS customers who would prefer to use Microsoft Office as their ideal writing application across all iOS devices.
Holt believes 30% of iPad users would buy Microsoft Office if it were released right now, which if the number of iPad users rises to 200 million by 2014, would make the company $2.5 billion in revenue after Apple takes its cut of the profits. That number would certainly rise if you consider how many iPhone and iPod Touch users would also purchase Microsoft Office.
On the other hand, we think Microsoft could possibly lose out on money if they publish a version of Microsoft Office that doesn’t run on Windows. Sure – it’ll be good for the consumer, but making Microsoft Office available on a non-Windows platform, especially a mobile platform when it’s trying to sell its Windows Phone 8 platform, could have more negative effects on the company than positive ones.
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