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Microsoft Paying Apple 30-Percent Cut on In-App Office 365 Subscription Purchases

Thursday March 27, 2014 3:14 pm PDT by Jordan Golson
Microsoft is paying a 30-percent cut to Apple on Office 365 subscription purchases made within the Office for iPad apps released today, in line with Apple's in-app purchase requirements required of other brands reports Re/code. This was previously a sticking point between the two companies, and was rumored to be a large part of why Microsoft wouldn't release Office on the iPad.

However, Microsoft's new CEO, Satya Nadella, is apparently more willing to work within Apple's requirements than ousted CEO Steve Ballmer. Year-long Office 365 subscriptions are available for in-app purchase for $100, with the subscription good for downloading Office on up to five tablets and five computers, Mac or PC computers, and Android, Windows or iOS tablets.

Microsoft Word for iPad
Indeed, Microsoft does offer Office 365 subscriptions within the just-released Word for iPad and the other Office apps and, yes, it is paying the 30 percent cut, Apple confirmed to Re/code. Microsoft declined to comment on the matter.

Apple has taken a hard line with all manner of publishers that want to sell things, even subscriptions that go well beyond the iPad content — if anything is sold in the app, they have to use Apple’s method and hand over 30 percent.
Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted to welcome Office for iPad to the App Store, with Nadella tweeting back that Microsoft was "excited to bring the magic of Office to iPad customers". During Nadella's press conference today, he said the company was looking to "empower people to be more productive" and to "do more across all devices".

Microsoft Office for iPad is a free download from the App Store, with Office 365 Home Premium available for $10/month or $100/year good for five tablets and five computers, with an Office 365 Personal subscription good for one computer and one tablet coming later this year for $7/month or $70/year.

There are also separate business options available as well, with billing based on total seats.

- Microsoft Word for iPad [Direct Link]
- Microsoft Excel for iPad [Direct Link]
- Microsoft PowerPoint for iPad [Direct Link]

[ 295 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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ashwin4
70 months ago
The Office 365 subscription is beyond stupid. Everyone hates it
Rating: 60 Votes
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Jsameds
70 months ago
So my options are:

- Pay a subscription in order to use word processing/spreadsheet/presentation software on my iDevice, and I don't own the software at all and can only use it if I cough up every month.

Or...

- Use the completely free word processing/spreadsheet/presentation software that came with my iDevice indefinitely, and I own the software outright.


Hmmmm. Tough choice...
Rating: 41 Votes
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mdridwan47
70 months ago
I'm not sure if even 1% of iOS users are willing to accept this subcription model.... iWork FTW. :cool:
Rating: 32 Votes
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Phil A.
70 months ago

The Office 365 subscription is beyond stupid. Everyone hates it


I think "everyone" is a bit hyperbolic! Office 365 is excellent value for small businesses - I use it for my company and it is very cost effective.
Rating: 21 Votes
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zaphon
70 months ago

Renting software is like being forced to play arcade machines when you know you have a home console that can run the games just as well for a one-off fee.

Say no to rental software.


Actually if you keep your software upgraded (MS and Adobe both being great examples of people doing the Subscription Model now), it's actually cheaper to do the subscription. It's only more expensive if you're that guy still using Office 2003 because you refuse to upgrade.
Rating: 12 Votes
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iMcLovin
70 months ago
the sad thing about a subscription model is that people that dont use word as their prime workprogram will try to avoid it. For me word is just a text edit tool for simple use, and the only program I use a lot is Powerpoint. But figured out Keynote is a lot better anyway, so Im not even gonna consider it. I would pay a single sum to have the ipad office package - but no way I´m gonna subscribe on something I use once a week maximum. I think many unpro-office users feel the same way about a subscription model.
Rating: 9 Votes
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zaphon
70 months ago

Why is this front page news? Seriously? Microsoft pay Apple the EXACT same cut of in app purchases as every single other app store developer does! Wow whoopee doo.....

Is this some attempt by Mac Rumours to make Microsoft look bad? For doing the same as is required of everyone else?

Please explain why this story is on the front page.


Because there's a lot of people who probably expected them not to (and do something similar to the Kindle app for iDevices).
Rating: 8 Votes
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zaphon
70 months ago

Everything I need to do in an "Office Suite" app is covered with iWork. Plus I can open, edit, save an Office file easily & share it with other Office Suite users from my iMac , iPhone & iPad…So, why do I need MSOff app + subscription?


This doesn't hold true for everyone. I just saved the two documents I was working on in Excel on my Mac and tried opening them in Numbers. The first one was truncated at 65,535 rows (There are approximately 750,000 rows in the spreadsheet), and the second one wouldn't open at all (password protected cells + unsupported features). These aren't files I created either, so I need them to work. Excel is the defacto standard, and unless you're doing basic things the iWorks apps aren't going to cut it.
Rating: 8 Votes
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iSRS
70 months ago

That throws the argument for Office 365 subscription, that MS does it to avoid giving 30% to Apple, out the window. It was already a dumb argument because nobody cares why MS does it, just that we'd have to pay a subscription service fee for a freaking word processor. So subscription = stupid.

And MS is late to the party here. AND on top of that, people use MacBook Pros for work, not iPads.


I bet I do 30% of my job as a project manager from an iPad. These apps will only increase that.
Rating: 7 Votes
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r3m1
70 months ago

Who really needs paying for an Office suite these days? I'm pretty happy with LibreOffice, it has nearly the same or even more functionality than the MS app.


Ignorance is bliss :rolleyes:
Rating: 6 Votes

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