Aside: I do not have an iPhone, I am the last of my friends to be stuck using a internet-less, regular-toothed, rotary-dial, steam-powered, hand-cranked flip phone. This post is not about about why that is ($$) or a revelation that I am caving (again, $$).

Disclaimer

I know nothing about the Mac Business Unit within Microsoft, I don’t know anyone at Microsoft anymore, and have no inside information related to the topic of this post.

January 2007: Apple Announces the iPhone

What a fateful day it was. A cell phone. From Apple. That ran “Mac OS X,” whatever that meant. Then thousands of voices cried out in unison, “No Third Party Apps!” A sentence which most reasonable people knew was succeeded in Steve Jobs’ mind by the word “…yet.” [Press Release]

October 2007: Steve Jobs Announces iPhone SDK

Steve shares in an open letter that there will be an SDK, third party apps!

March 2008: SDK Released

SDK, App Store, much rejoicing. [Press Release]

July 2008: App Store is Open for Business

The biggest orgy since the iPhone hit the shelves.

February 2009: Still No Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for iPhone

It’s been nearly a year since the official release of the SDK, and even before that it was clear that the iPhone was a smash hit and likely to be the standard against which mobile handsets would be judged for a long time to come. Microsoft had plenty of warning.

I don’t know who at Microsoft has a black turtleneck phone that connects straight to Steve Jobs’ old office, but if I was that person I would have spent a lot of time on it between October 2007 and July 2008 making sure that iPhone Office Companions were some of the first apps out the door.

Instead, Office is not represented on the most influential OS in the most coveted market with the most projected growth in the technology industry. That’s crazy. People are downloading iPhone-Ocarinas and farting applications, yet there is no Microsoft Office.

Microsoft could sell 1 Million copies of a $0.99 app that did nothing but sync and view Office files with no editing capabilities at all. Throw in basic editing and charge $10, or just include a code for a free license when you buy Office for the desktop. This isn’t rocket science.

The iPhone economy, as they call it, is instead slowly developing replacements and workarounds. It won’t be long before this won’t matter because no one will need Office for the iPhone. Which is good for users, but bad for Microsoft. Considering Office 2008 for Mac wasn’t worth buying, I don’t know how they’ll be able to hang on to any customers.