Microsoft wants an exception for 30% Apple tax on Office 365, apps blocked in spat

Apple is now confirmed to have straight denied Microsoft updating its SkyDrive app for iOS, but that is only what’s on the surface. The dispute goes deeper, to Microsoft’s Office 365, the cloud subscription-based office solution, that is coming up for iOS.

The problem is that Microsoft is arguing Apple’s 30% share of iOS apps, as that seems too much for the Office maker. Microsoft argues that it bringing Office to iOS will be of benefit to Apple itself, with the logic being that it’d have one big app advantage in drawing more users to its platform.

Office has long been at the core of Microsoft’s financial success and bringing it to mobile has been an enormous challenge that could have a huge impact on the company.

Apple obviously disagrees that Office is in any way special on the other hand, and does not think Office 365 is an exception to the 30% revenue cut rule.

Apple’s official comment on the whole issue is fairly blunt:

“Apple provides customers and developers the largest selection and safest way to discover apps with our curated App Store,” Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said. “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.”

Will Microsoft be able to change the rules in the App Store and get a discount on the typical 30% Apple tax? We don’t know, but we surely hope the two companies settle on something soon for users’ sake.