Thursday, March 27, 2008

Microsoft Mulls Building iPhone Apps


Microsoft recently told Fortune magazine that it is looking at developing software for the iPhone.

It was only inevitable that Microsoft would be trying to cash in on the popularity of the iPhone, especially after the release of the iPhone SDK. The iPhone SDK gives Microsoft the opportunity to jump on the millions of people using the iPhone without having to work with Apple, at least directly. The SDK gives Microsoft the ability to produce suites of Office and other applications for the iPhone.

Don't sign the paperwork, yet. Microsoft's team of Mac developers has only been looking at the iPhone SDK for a week or so now and deciding whether or not the opportunity exists to produce applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Microsoft isn't a stranger to this area. The Mac Business Unit is a team of Microsoft developers that works on producing Microsoft applications, like Office, for the Mac operating system. Another group at Microsoft interested in the iPhone is from the voice recognition unit at Microsoft featuring the TellMe software that Microsoft recently acquired. TellMe is currently developing voice recognition software for the Windows Mobile operating system, but the iPhone SDK gives plenty of potential for the iPhone route as well.

I'm not an industry analysis, but I'd put money on seeing the Office suite available on the iPhone in the future.

[Thanks: http://blogs.pcworld.com]

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