Too Long; Didn't Read
One of the most interesting strategic and technical challenges I faced while leading Office development was the challenge of cross-platform development. The web and then the mobile wave created a new set of target platforms and dominant operating systems. iOS and Android devices captured the phone and tablet markets. Windows responded with a largely new Windows RunTime API for building Windows Store apps. Web-based delivery of complex applications became possible given improvements in the underlying browser platform and better connectivity. We needed to figure out how all these new devices and our shift to services changed what Office should be and how we should participate on these platforms. Our thinking was greatly complicated by trying to model and control how the choices Office made would impact the fortunes of our Windows phone and tablet efforts. This post explores how we navigated both the strategic and technical challenges we faced during this period.