Microsoft Embraces Apple Watch

This shouldn’t come as any surprise, but to a fan base weary of Microsoft’s emphasis on competing mobile platforms, here’s some more bad news: the software giant is supporting the Apple Watch with a growing selection of apps.

To be fair, Microsoft also supports Android Wear—Google’s Android-based watch and wearable platform—with apps as well. (I just mentioned this briefly in Microsoft + Android.) And as is the case with Android Wear, Microsoft’s support of Apple Watch happens via smart phone apps (in this case for iPhone) that interact with the wearable device.

So far there are two Microsoft solutions for Apple Watch.

The first is OneDrive. Microsoft updated the iOS version of the app this week to support Apple Watch, that users can enjoy their OneDrive-based photos right from their wrist. That is, you can view your most recent photos, delete photos you don’t want to keep, and find photos by tag, using Apple Watch. Dick Tracy would be so proud.

Next up is PowerPoint. Via PowerPoint Remote for Apple Watch, you can control your slide show on iPhone, start your slide show, navigate to the next and previous slides, and see the elapsed time, the current slide number and total number of slides at a glance. It most likely works similarly to the Office Remote app for Windows Phone and Android, though I’d imagine there’s less capability in the Apple Watch, given the reduced onscreen real estate.

Since no one actually has an Apple Watch, it’s not clear how well these solutions work, and I’m guessing we’ll see a lot more from Microsoft as the launch gets closer and devices start getting out into the world. You know, in like July or whatever.