Microsoft finally entered the Cloud on Tuesday with the release of Office 2013, offering subscribers 20GB of storage through SkyDrive.
But while the Redmond-based software company is just now arriving to the Cloud storage scene, small companies like Dropbox have been flourishing, with the latter boasting over 100 million users.
That's a pretty big number. Except to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Ballmer was asked how Microsoft plans to simultaneously upgrade its services while keeping traditional users happy, especially when it's late to the market and Dropbox has so many users. Ballmer was cordial in his response, but left no doubt that he doesn't see Dropbox as a big threat.
"Well, you've got to remember, 100 million sounds like a pretty small number to me, actually," he said. "We've got a lot more Office users. And actually if you even want to go to the cloud, we have a lot of Hotmail and SkyDrive users. I'm not beating on Dropbox. They're a fine little startup and that's great."
Ballmer was also asked if Microsoft has reached a limit in terms of growth options for Office. The company has more than 1 billion users, how much higher could it realistically go?
"That number is going to grow," he said. "That's sort of the miracle of economic development, isn't it? More and more people enter the class of information workers and knowledge workers."
Of course, no interview about Office could end without addressing the elephant in the room: When is Microsoft going to release an Office app for the iPad? Not surprisingly, the big boss was noncommittal.
"I have nothing to say on that topic," said Ballmer. "We're very glad with the product, very happy with the product that we're putting in market. It makes sense on the devices like the Mac and the PC. We have a product that we think makes a lot of sense. We do have a way for people always to get to Office through the browser, which is very important. And we'll see what we see in the future."
Putting Office on the iPad is something a lot of tablet users have clamored for, but the move doesn't really make much sense for Microsoft at the moment. The company is knee-deep in its effort to make its Surface tablets viable alternatives to Apple's insanely popular slate, and releasing an iOS-enabled Office suite would only draw more people towards the iPad. Add the fact that Apple charges a 30 percent commission on all apps sold through its App Store, and Microsoft would be doing more than making the iPad a better product: It'd be lining its rival's pockets with cash.
Read the entire interview here.
