iPhone May Line Microsoft's Pockets

"It's really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone," said Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft's specialized devices and applications group. "To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we're actually in the process of trying to understand that now."

Testing the Water

The MacBU exists because it makes good money for Microsoft, to the tune of US$350 million in revenue per year with a profit estimated at $200 million.

That group has a lot of experience writing Mac software, so it's natural for them to explore the iPhone SDK.

"We do have experience with that environment, and that gives us confidence to be able to do something," Gibbons said. "The key question is, what is the value that we need to bring? We're still getting comfortable with the SDK, right? It's just come out. So we had a guess as to what feasibility would be like. Now we'll really get our head wrapped around that."

Natural Progression

In addition, another Microsoft group, TellMe, sees opportunity in voice recognition software, an area in which Microsoft has spent a lot of R&D dollars.

"If the SDK supports these things," said Mike McCue, TellMe's general manager, "we're absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can."

That Microsoft is looking to make money from the iPhone may seem ironic, but making money from Apple hardware is merely something the MacBU has been doing for a very long time.