Microsoft: No Plans To Offer Office Version For Apple iPad

This headline from Barron’s again shows why Microsoft’s market cap is about to be eclipsed by Apple’s.  The just do not get it.  But they will after it is, perhaps, too late.

Apple has dominant market share in high end PC’s and nominal share in PC’s below $1,000.  The iPad is a mainstream low cost PC – thus the mainstream media promotion on Letterman, Modern Family, and other mass audience shows.  That much is obvious.

What I think is more subtle is that it can also create a strong beachhead in the education and corporate markets.  These markets are full of people that create content on the fly, and if they are willing to do that on an iPad then Apple will have taught them to be comfortable with Pages, Keynote and Numbers.  Once they are comfortable, then they might just feel comfortable using the same programs on their desktop…and the rest, as they say, is history.  Microsoft by not being present on the platform allows Apple to gain desktop market share.

To me another indicator of Apple’s push to the education and corporate markets is the removal of the camera from prototype versions – a camera would be cool, but it takes away from what might be appropriate in these serious settings.  Time will tell, but I can see many notes, dossiers, and text books being replaced by this 1 1/2 pound device.

Apple takes the risks, and so deservers the rewards.  Microsoft can try and be a fast-follower, but that is becoming a riskier strategy in tech.