Just after Microsoft announced unlimited cloud storage for Office 365 subscribers, the company is now taking on an unlikely partner. While Redmond seems to be pushing into the cloud space aggressively, it has now announced a partnership with one of its strongest OneDrive competitors: Dropbox. The two companies have worked out a deal that will see the Office apps for iOS and Android get direct integration into Dropbox's storage service, among other things.
The deal focuses on various aspects of integration, starting off with being able to access/edit Microsoft Office documents from the mobile Dropbox app and vice versa. Users will also be able to share Dropbox links to Office apps, get full multi-device cloud synching and there will now be support for first-party Dropbox content for Microsoft's mobile apps.
While it may seem weird that Microsoft would get in bed with one of its main competitors to some, it seems the company just can't deny the sheer numbers Dropbox has produced. It sits with more than 80,000 paying business customers on top of hundreds of millions of basic users, and Microsoft wants them all using Office.
A Dropbox app for Windows Phone and tablets is expected in the coming months and iOS/Android, Dropbox for Business and Office 365 support should be available over the next few weeks. We should also be seeing Office Online and the browser based Dropbox integrate sometime in early 2015.