Satya Nadella (pictured) said Microsoft is promoting the development of ‘universal’ Windows apps as it creates the broadest opportunity for developers to achieve a return on investment by building for Windows.

Universal Windows apps work across all smartphones, tablets and PCs based on the company’s software. Microsoft started to accept submissions for these types of apps in April.

Speaking during the company’s results presentation, the Microsoft CEO said one of the “beauties” of the approach is that it opens up the entire volume of Windows — more than 300 million units — for mobile developers to tap into, rather than limiting them to the relatively small market currently occupied by Windows Phone.

Currently, there are multiple Windows operating systems within Microsoft, for phone, tablet, PC, Xbox and embedded.

Now, Nadella noted, there is a single team working with a layered architecture to “bring that collective opportunity with one store, one commerce system, one discoverability mechanism” and “to scale the UI across all screen sizes”.

Nadella added that the goal of having multiple Microsoft applications available on every home screen was the main driver for the introduction of Office for iPad in March.

The iPad versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote Office have now reached more than 35 million downloads — an additional eight million since mid-May.

Office for iPad apps reached 12 million downloads just a week after launch and the products topped the download charts in more than a hundred markets, heading the revenue charts in several countries.