As it had been announced a few hours ago, Office for iPad is now official. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook appears to be pretty pleased by the launch and went as far as congratulating Microsoft and its CEO, Satya Nadella, on the app’s launch on his Twitter account.
So why is Tim Cook happy about the launch? Well as it turns out it seems that this is because Apple will be taking a 30% cut from Office 365 subscriptions that have been purchased on the iPad, as per usual with regards to in-app purchases.
This was confirmed by Apple to the folks over at Re/Code although Microsoft declined to comment on it. Like we said this is to be expected of all in-app purchases made through the iTunes App Store although we’re not sure how Microsoft feels about it, since now they’ll have to be giving a cut to Apple for selling subscriptions through their App Store.
Of course the 30% cut does not apply to those who already own Office 365 subscriptions or who choose to purchase their subscriptions outside of the iTunes App Store, but we thought you should know where some of your money will be going to if you were to buy it from the App Store instead.
It was initially thought that perhaps giving a cut to Apple was not an idea Microsoft relished which could have possibly delayed the launch, but we guess Microsoft thought that perhaps in the long run it would pay off. Either way for those interested, app is available for download now and will be free, but editing documents will require a subscription.