Microsoft Also Looking At The iPhone SDK

The iPhone SDK is supposed to send developers on a programming spree to create applications for Apple's mobile. I know that saying that is stating the obvious, but the curious part is that even rival companies are given the chance to play around with the tools and create apps of their own. If you enumerate Apple's competition, few come close to Microsoft, but even the Redmond tech giant is interested in seeing what it can bring to the iPhone.

Microsoft is currently examining the possibility of developing applications for the iPhone, including versions of its Office apps, according to a new report. Speaking with Fortune, Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Specialized Devices and Applications Group, said, "It's really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone. To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we're actually in the process of trying to understand that now." Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, which is responsible for the development of Office for Mac, has long been one of the largest groups of Mac developers outside of Apple, giving it experience it can leverage when developing for the iPhone. "We do have experience with that environment, and that gives us confidence to be able to do something," Gibbons said. "The key question is, what is the value that we need to bring? We're still getting comfortable with the SDK, right? It's just come out. So we had a guess as to what feasibility would be like, now we'll really get our head wrapped around that."

This actually reminds me of Super Monkey Ball. It was a launch title that Sega made for the Nintendo GameCube. Prior to that, the two companies were rivals in the console market, starting with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the Sega Genesis. The latter fell out of the gaming hardware race and shifted to software, creating titles for some of its former rivals. While not a direct parallel, it shows us that Microsoft's plans to create software for the iPhone is not a unique case of competitors working together. We've seen it before, and considering that Microsoft is a company that was built by software, it makes sense that it wants to maximize on its core strength.

Source: iLounge

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Microsoft Also Looking At The iPhone SDK

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