iApple Products

A Microsoft exec blasted rival Apple Inc. on Wednesday, calling the company's apps "struggling" and "lightweight."

Frank Shaw, Microsoft's  corporate vice president for communications, also argued that Microsoft's tablets were better than Apple's new iPads. Reacting to news that Apple was dropping its fees for its iWork suite of apps, Shaw said in a blog post, "Now, since iWork has never gotten much traction, and was already priced like an afterthought, it's hardly that surprising or significant a move."

He also downplayed Apple's  rollout of new iPad devices, saying Microsoft's Surface and Surface 2 "are less expensive than the iPad 2 and iPad Air respectively, and yet offer more storage, both onboard and in the cloud."

Shaw noted that he wrote his blog post from Abu Dhabi, where Nokia — soon to be owned by Microsoft — unveiled its first Lumia tablet just hours before Apple held its event in San Francisco to showcase the new iPads.

Back to the Apple price cuts – does Microsoft feel threatened? No way, says Shaw.

"When I see Apple drop the price of their struggling, lightweight productivity apps, I don't see a shot across our bow, I see an attempt to play catch up," he wrote .

"I think they, like others, are waking up to the fact that we've built a better solution for people everywhere, who are getting things done from anywhere, and who don't have hard lines between their personal and professional lives. People who want a single, simple, affordable device with the power and flexibility to enhance and support their whole day. "

Apple, together with Google Inc. , are the two dominant players in the mobile computing space. Microsoft is widely-seen as struggling to catch up with the two. Shaw, the Microsoft exec, has complained that the company's story isn't being told properly, comparing coverage of the software behemoth to the movie, "Rashomon."

He did not discuss Apple's surprising move to make its new Mac operating system known as "Mavericks" available free of charge. Microsoft reports results for its first fiscal quarter on Thursday afternoon, after the closing bell.

- Benjamin Pimentel

Follow Benjamin Pimentel on Twitter @benpimentel

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