Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore Reassures Users That ’Office Team Has Not Forgotten Windows Phone’

Windows Phone has captured roughly 2.5 percent of the global smartphone market, and its fortunes don’t exactly look promising in the face of cutthroat competition from the likes of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Considering that Microsoft has a darling property in its portfolio like Office, one would expect that the folks in Redmond would devote its time and resources to ensuring that the productivity suite shined the brightest on Windows Phone.

However, as we’ve seen in the past few months, Microsoft has devoted the majority of its resources into making Office look and function better on iOS and Android while Windows Phone users have been left shaking their heads. You can’t exactly blame Microsoft for catering to Android and iOS users (which represent 84.7 percent and 11.7 percent of the worldwide smartphone market respectively), but the Windows Phone snub is a glaring one.

Here’s Office for iPhone vs. Office for Windows Phone with the same document open. Guess which is better? iPhone pic.twitter.com/NfnCeIDipz

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) November 6, 2014

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of the Operating Systems Group, is reaching out to Windows Phone users to let them know that the company hasn’t forgotten about them. In a message posted to his Weibo account, Belfiore confirmed what many of us already know; Windows Phone users are tired of getting the shaft when it comes to Office:

I want to acknowledge the comments and letters you all have sent, noting that you’ve been frustrated seeing Microsoft launch new applications like Office on iOS and Android, without accompanying news around what will happen on Windows Phone. I want to assure you that our Office team has not forgotten Windows Phone - we're just aligning all of our news and announcements to a single event. You'll hear much more about what we have planned before Chinese New Year.

Joe Belfiore, Microsoft Corporate Vice President for the Operating Systems Group

The Chinese New Year begins on February 19, but Windows Central surmises that Microsoft will likely make an announcement on updates to the Windows Phone version of Office on January 21. That is when Microsoft will talk about the next chapter in the development of its flagship Windows 10 operating system.