The Transport Guy: Microsoft is taking over my iPhone (MSFT, AAPL)

Steve Kovach June 02, 2015 at 10:47AM

My iPhone is starting to look like a Microsoft phone.

Over the last year, Microsoft's acquisition strategy has been to buy the best mobile productivity apps. The latest is Wunderlist, a to-do list app Microsoft officially acquired on Tuesday. It's my favorite way to keep up with what I have to do each day both at work and in my personal life.

With the Wunderlist acquisition, Microsoft now owns three of the most important apps on my iPhone's home screen: Sunrise (the best calendar app), Outlook (formerly known as Acompli, which is the best email app), and Wunderlist (the best app for managing to-do lists and other tasks). 

Microsoft isn't buying buzzy social networking apps or games. It's buying great productivity apps that people love. But more important than that, Microsoft is buying apps that are better at performing the same core functions as Apple's preloaded iPhone apps. For example, the closest thing Apple has to Wunderlist is the Reminders app, which is far too simple and lacks a lot of the features that makes a to-do list app great. Same goes for Apple Mail and Apple Calendar.

There's a better alternative for every Apple-made app, and Microsoft is snapping them up one by one. 

Microsoft altered its mission last year to make people more productive no matter what device they use. Part of that process is making sure it has great apps on your home screen, even if those apps were originally made by third parties. And so far, it's picking nothing but winners.

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Microsoft is taking over my iPhone (MSFT, AAPL) from Business Insider: Steve Kovach