OneDrive Update Will Be Available For Apple Watch

folarin okunola

April 21, 2015 8:07 AM

Microsoft and Apple have been fierce rivals historically, but the Windows manufacturer is proving to be a cross-platform player these days.

Apple Watch to feature OneDrive Update

Although Microsoft has its own wearable on the market, the Microsoft Band, it appears Microsoft will support the Apple Watch. The company recently unveiled an update to the iOS app for OneDrive, its cloud storage service, which will allow Apple Watch owners to view their photos on OneDrive from their wrist using Apple’s new smartwatch. The new feature makes OneDrive the first of numerous Microsoft iOS applications to support the watch.

In the App Store update text, Microsoft explains, that OneDrive users will be able to view their photos and delete those they don’t want to keep, view their albums as well as locate their photos by tag, all from the Apple watch’s screen.

It is unclear, of course, whether Apple Watch owners will want to view photos from their wrists, after all, the smartphone in their pockets is still better off for that sort of thing.

But that hasn’t stopped companies from developing apps for that sort of thing. Instagram for example, was one of the intial third-party applications Apple showed off when it launched the Watch and that will be the first time Instagram will embrace a wearable of any sort – it is even yet to launch apps for Google’s smartwatches.

Even though Microsoft and Apple have been historically fierce rivals, it is not entirely surprising to see Microsoft embracing the Apple watch. Microsoft’s strategy under new CEO Satya Nadella has seen the company develop versions of its popular products across competing mobile platforms, including iOS and Android.

With the Apple Watch support, Microsoft is proving to be a cross-platform player in this new mobile scene, as opposed to one that simply promotes its own platform and services, excluding others.

The addition of OneDrive to the Apple Watch also means that Microsoft has beaten Google in bringing its cloud storage service to Apple Watch. Although, Google has many iOS versions of most of its aps, it has remained quiet as to whether there will be Apple Watch apps. Its current plans instead is to bring Android wear support to iOS owners rather than Google apps to Apple Watch owners.

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