UPDATED 12:06 EDT / OCTOBER 30 2014

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella And The Company's Entry Into The Smartwatch Fray NEWS

Opening up: Microsoft’s new recipe to woo iOS, Android developers

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella And The Company's Entry Into The Smartwatch Fray

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Making good on his promise that Microsoft will stop foisting Windows on folks who would rather use something else, CEO Satya Nadella this week announced that Office 365 can now work with apps written for Android and iOS.

This is a payoff on something CEO Nadella stated a few weeks ago: Office 365 is now Microsoft’s most-strategic API. Take that, Windows! (And, not coincidentally, “Take that, Steve Ballmer!” Windows’ loyalist to the/his end).

“With millions of consumers and over 70 percent of the Fortune 500 companies using Office 365, it presents developers an opportunity to reach an audience that’s not only vast, but highly engaged given the number of hours people spend in Office every day,” read Microsoft’s Office Dev blog (linked above).

Rather than building apps for Windows, Microsoft is pushing developers to build for Office 365, which runs on Windows as well on Mac, iOS and in the cloud.

Specifically, Microsoft announced:

  • General availability of new Office 365 APIs for mail, files, calendar and contacts
  • New mobile SDKs for native app development, and
  • Visibility for developers’ apps through the new Office 365 app launcher. 

What this means for users

 

First, Microsoft is doing what it does best — making money when developers build cool things that run on its platforms. Used to be DOS, then Windows, now Office 365. Unlike its predecessors, however, Microsoft makes money from Office 365 every single month, not just when someone buys new hardware.

Second, this is Microsoft making productivity important again. When was the last time you could do something really new and interesting because you had Microsoft Office? The George H.W. Bush years?

The poster child for Office 365-as-a-platform is a service called IFTTT, which stands for “if this, then that” and describes an ability for one application to trigger an action in another application. A simple example is receiving an email from your boss that triggers an SMS message to your phone. Sure, it’s glorified rules, but it’s cross-application glorified rules. And it works with Office 365 and a scad of other apps. And, they don’t call them rules, but recipes.

Over 130 different services can use IFTTT to connect to Office 365 mail, contacts, calendars and files. While many of the examples on the ITFFF site are more dopey than life-changing, there are also some I want to try for myself.

Someday, tech historians will mark the end of the Windows era and the beginning of Office 365 as the dominant platform. Will it be now? Or earlier, when Satya got his new job? Or will we learn Ballmer was headed in this direction anyway, but bought a basketball team instead?

 .

P.S. I’m baaaaaack!

After several months working on other projects, mostly in animal rescue, I am again writing for SiliconANGLE, which I very much enjoy. Great readers and a much above-average crew. I’ll be here twice-a-week, mostly reacting to news with a consumer, mobile, and/or social bent.

photo credit: windowsau via photopin cc


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