Why does MS make its software compatible with OS X?

[ebolamonkey3]

This is one of those questions that I've always had and never really figured it out.

Why don't they just stop licensing Windows and Office to Apple? Businesses and many people cannot leave the Windows/Office environment, but they're able to compromise b/c Macs can run both platforms. If MS starts being evil (well, more evil than they are now) and stops licensing Windows and Office to Apple, that would really hurt Mac sales IMO.

I know that Mac sales is only a very small part of Apple's portfolio and the market, but on a broader scale it's also a war between platforms and ecosystems. The more people use iOS, the more sense it makes for them to adopt OS X. Not being able to access Windows/Office on the Mac platform could deter a part of the market from doing that.

 

[Mousse]

Why don't they just stop licensing Windows and Office to Apple?

Money. Lots and lots of money.

Businesses and many people cannot leave the Windows/Office environment, but they're able to compromise b/c Macs can run both platforms. If MS starts being evil (well, more evil than they are now) and stops licensing Windows and Office to Apple, that would really hurt Mac sales IMO.

The $$$ they're making off Mac users buying Office would be lost because those same users would switch to OpenOffice or NeoOffice or some other office suite. Compatibility isn't a problem, since pretty much every word processing program offers a Words compatible format. Same with spreadsheets and Excel.

I know that Mac sales is only a very small part of Apple's portfolio and the market, but on a broader scale it's also a war between platforms and ecosystems. The more people use iOS, the more sense it makes for them to adopt OS X.

Speculation. Beside, some of us don't like iOS but love OS X.

Not being able to access Windows/Office on the Mac platform could deter a part of the market from doing that.

Nope... see reason above. Bottom line it's all about the bottom line.

 

[mobilehaathi]

It is in their financial interest.

 

[Dr McKay]

Because they're a software company. They don't care what platform is running their software. They went it on as many things as possible. Its like when people like to point and laugh and call it an epic fail when someone at Microsoft did a PowerPoint using a Macbook Pro bootcamped in Windows. Its not, because as far as Microsoft is concerned its just another brand of computer to get Windows on.

 

[rhett7660]

Money. End of story, why not make software for that remaining percentage of computers.

 

[Designer Dale]

Supporting the Mac keeps MS from being a true monopoly and the feds would force them to break up.

Dale