Why Office for iPad makes sense in the world of Satya+Larry+Tim

Microsoft is a new company.  I think just about everyone who doubted that is now absolutely clear that MSFT under Steve Ballmer is nothing like the company under Satya.  Number one thing is clear is that
Satya understands the new landscape.  The new landscape right now is this:

1) the number one personal computing device company is Apple

2) the number one consumer cloud company is Google

Both of these companies are looking to get into the lucrative business of being the number one business productivity company because that's a multi billion dollar business and a huge platform with tentacles throughout the world that matters.

It looks like Satya decided not to waste his time fighting the current forces head on.  That strategy has been employed by Steve Ballmer who was still hoping that Microsoft can outgun the competition like it's 1999.

Satya comes from cloud services background which he turned from zero to a formidable competitor to Amazon Web Services.  He completely understands that in the new multi-device world it's more critical than ever to be the keeper of user's data and the enabler of business productivity.

Microsoft now brings the productivity and data to you "where you are" instead of limiting to the devices that run Windows.  The battle ground is no longer who controls the OS API.  The battle ground now is who controls your data.  Just like 20 years ago it was important to provide the solutions and infrastructure to access your disk, graphics card and get input from your mouse, today it's important to be able to share information, verify identity, and provide security that transcends corporate firewalls.

This is the place where Microsoft has a fighting chance to be the top dog.  They can give consumers what they want - responsive and beautiful software that takes advantage of device capabilities, ubiquitous data formats and cloud services.  On the developer front they can give developers what they want: excellent IDE which works well with the Cloud (read Azure), reliable identity services across all devices and API for cloud based data.

Microsoft will still keep their "horses in the race" with Windows Phone and Surface and continue working with hardware manufacturers, but I think we will see more and more of the Microsoft Cloud services offered to all the devices and all the developers.  This in turn is going to change the company from a software licensing to a cloud computing revenue model.

I am really looking forward to BUILD conference this week.  My guess is that there will be more options for cross platform developments where all roads lead to the Microsoft Cloud.