Two-way integration between Dropbox and Office 365 gives people yet another reason to pick up an Office subscription
Never let it be said that Microsoft doesn't wring the most out of a
partnership. That's certainly the case in its recent odd-couple
engagements, hosting Oracle and Salesforce software on Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft's teamup with Dropbox looks
a lot like another pairing in the same vein. Both Microsoft and Dropbox
customers can savor the deal, but once again Microsoft ends up with the
better long-term bargain -- in this case, giving Office users incentive
to move to Office 365.
The outlines of the deal are simple enough: Microsoft is adding
Dropbox connectivity to the mobile editions of Office 365, so users of
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can edit those files directly from within
Dropbox's interface. Dropbox is also tapped to build an app for the
mobile editions of Windows, which in theory will be ready when the next
version of Windows launches.
The pair-up makes sense on the face
of it, since most Office/Dropbox users store Office documents in
Dropbox, and Dropbox and Office 365 are complementary -- not competitive
-- products.
That said, Microsoft's OneDrive is a Dropbox competitor, so why would Microsoft pair up with a competitor? True, the company has been taking steps to make OneDrive more competitive on
its own terms. But the real answer probably lies in Microsoft's drive
to convert its Office user base to the new, more lucrative subscription
model.
The
size of the Office base is staggering -- 1.2 billion users, allegedly
-- but many are still using older editions of the program that generate
little or no revenue for Microsoft. Anything that can nudge those users
to Office 365 is likely worth a try.
Adding Dropbox support to
Office 365 apps (and vice versa) makes both applications more useful,
and Microsoft loses little. At worst, it drops some potential OneDrive
business; at best, it adds new Office 365 users and -- at least as
important -- converts more existing Office users to a subscription model
it can monetize in the long run.
Microsoft can also give Dropbox
users an excuse to switch to OneDrive, thanks to the way Office 365 and
OneDrive are delivered jointly. The $6.99-per-month personal-use version
of OneDrive includes Office 365 Personal, and the business version of
OneDrive includes the full-blown Office Online for $5 per user per
month. Dropbox, at $9.99 per month for the Pro version and $15 per month
for the business version, has comparable storage offering -- 1TB for
Pro, no limits on business -- but any applications on top of that are
strictly what you bring.
As Microsoft becomes more dependent on
its cloud services and subscription-based products for revenue, it'll
likely keep striking deals in this vein and justify them as "what's best
for the customer." None of them is likely to be the deal that pushes Microsoft off its dependency on the legacy desktop, but every incremental bit helps.
Plus,
having Dropbox build a version of its app for the mobile version of
Windows 10 means there will be one more app likely to enjoy wide use out
of the box -- and help drive early adoption of the OS.
It's hard
to deny that building Office 365 support into Dropbox and vice versa is a
boon for users, but in the long run Office 365 -- and Microsoft --
stands to benefit most.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com
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