Microsoft Word hits 1 billion installs on Android

Microsoft’s cross-platform app strategy has his a new milestone, with the Microsoft Word for Android app hitting a billion installs on that operating system.

Word is the lead Office app on Android and hit half a billion installs in May 2018. With around 2 billion Android phones in use, that means around half of all Android phones come with the application. With only 1.5 billion Windows machines in use, this suggests there may soon be more Word users on Android than on the desktop (and this may already be the case if iOS users are included.)

Microsoft has, of course, benefitted from deals to pre-install the software on Samsung and other phones, but that can not be the whole story, as the app has a 4.5/5 rating in the Android store, suggesting more than a few of the 3.5 million people who rated it found it useful.

We have previously suggested Microsoft is building a raft of applications which floats on the platforms of other operating systems, especially Android, and many have said Microsoft has enough components to build their own version of Android, powered by Microsoft Launcher, Edge for Android and Cortana, with the main missing bit being an app store.

Given Microsoft’s real success on Google’s platform, do our readers see any point in Microsoft making its own Android phone? Let us know below.

Via AndroidPolice, Thurrott