Now Apple wants a cut of Office 365 subscriptions also

I guess we now know what is delaying Office for iOS. Apparently it is not just SkyDrive, but Apple also wants a 30% cut of Office 365 subscriptions sold through the iOS Office app.

Apparently Microsoft feels 30% is not reasonable, especially for the productivity benefits it brings to iOS, and also as the subscriptions would also include desktop access. Apple disagrees, and is sticking to their 30% guns.

In a statement to AllthingsD company spokesman Tom Neumayr  said:

“Apple provides customers and developers the largest selection and safest way to discover apps with our curated App Store. We’ve designed our rules to be fair and consistent for every developer — free apps and services are distributed for free, paid apps and services provide a revenue share to Apple. We’ve paid out over 6.5 billion dollars to our developer community who have created over 700,000 apps.”

Microsoft has not commented yet, but we expect if Surface tablets gain any significant traction in enterprise due to Office inclusion Apple may change their tune very rapidly.