back to article Microsoft prepping Office for iPad?

Microsoft is said to be preparing a version of its Office productivity suite for Apple's überpopular fondleslab, the "magical and revolutionary" iPad. So say unnamed sources speaking – fittingly enough – to The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's less than wildly successful iPad newspaper, launched with great fanfare this February. The …

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  1. dogged
    Thumb Down

    Office Live, maybe.

  2. Efros
    Big Brother

    I wonder

    whose phone was hacked to get that nugget.

  3. P. Lee

    If true, probably web based

    As a pad cpu is going to disappoint with all the stuff Office 2010 does.

    They probably need to do this as more powerful arm chips are on their way and they need to lock in mobile devices as MSOffice users before they settle on something else (Pages, Libreoffice or something new). Otherwise you might end up with large android/ipad tablets sprouting keyboards and moving into the ultrabook space bringing linux, OSX/iOS with them with no cash for MS.

    Could IT become interesting again?

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      The dual core iPad CPU is on par with a computer of about 5-10 years ago. 10 years ago we managed to cope fine with doing mundane office work and the chips were single core then.

      If you are doing complex Excel calculations then you might see a problem.

    2. jonathanb Silver badge

      Or maybe not

      I'm sure you can use Office 365 on your slab at the moment, or if you can't, it won't take a lot of work to get it working. Certainly, I can get onto my office web apps for sharepoint without any problems other than finding a network signal of some sort.

      However, the iPad version of office won't do everything the desktop version can, for the simple reason that the iPad is not a desktop replacement. It will do the sorts of things you can do on Office for Windows Mobile & Windows Phone, except with the benefit of a larger screen you will be able to actually do stuff most of the time rather than continually scrolling everywhere and revealing and hiding toolbars.

  4. alwarming
    Paris Hilton

    Supposedly Office is run as a separate business within Microsoft.

    But if it was *truly* an independent business it would have done that long ago, along with an ubuntu/linux version.

    In future (or even today?), M$ will no longer have a total monopoly on consumer computing devices. If M$ BUs have to survive they need to look beyond Windows as a platform. Azure, xbox, office - they all need to expand their market. Does IBM storage work with only mainframes ? No. They work fine with Linux and HP-UX. Why ? Because they are separate businesses within IBM and they don't want to be stifled.

    Having a common denominator sometimes makes sense when sharing a technology can cut R&D costs.. (using IBM example again: like use of PowerPC in all IBM servers which shreas the R&D cost.). But keeping windows as a common platform is not helping office that much (agreed maintaining closeness to 1 platform is easy.. but once they had a port on Mac, they effectively disassociated with the underling OS and they can do it again).

    Paris, coz she likes freedom of keeping what's underneath her.

    1. Gordon 10

      What drugs are you on?

      There is absolutely no business case for MS office on Linux and that's assuming that every Linux desktop would want to run it. Factor in the fact that many users who are on Linux hate MS then the business becomes laughable.

      I suggest you think before commentarding.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Peter 48
    Meh

    not that big a deal

    All this will be is a free app that grants access to office 365, and i would expect it released on all platforms. It still gives win phone 7.5 an edge with dedicated office apps, thereby not taking one of its usp

  6. bigfoot780

    Activation?

    Will Apple allow it?

    1. bradbox

      Of course they will - it will be create massive publicity for both organisations and transform the iPad into a more solid business tool.

    2. Bear Features

      Sure they'll allow it. Their 'Pages' and 'Numbers' hardly set the world alight. The first thing I did when I got a mc was get MS Office. Apple will allow it quicker than you can say allooominum

  7. dogged
    FAIL

    ubuntu/linux version

    don't be silly, there's (proportionally) no market whatsoever for linux on the desktop.

    Ask yourself why there's no Photoshop for linux, sometime. Hint - it's not due to Microsoft.

  8. Velv
    Go

    Hopefully MS will make it a free App, allowing features to be unlocked by entering the license key from your desktop product, thus denying Apple their usual 30% cut for doing nothing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What about the markup of whoever sold you that desktop product? (these days often a download as well)

      Microsoft doesn't sell direct you know (even their "official Microsoft store" is run by a reseller)

  9. Mikel
    Windows

    Another foolish rumor

    Microsoft is not going to support the iOS and Android platforms with Office - not even the years-old Office that you can get for OS-X. That would be suicidal.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple 30% for doing nothing..

    other than testing, vetting, hosting, advertising, credit card transaction handling, banking. Yup, that sure is nothing.

    As to Office for the iPad, I'd be amazed if they didn't as its an obvious revenue stream given the popularity of apps such as Documents to go and Apples own office type apps.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who needs MS office ?

    Soooooo many ways to do docs, spreadsheets etc that are far cheaper. We are no longer in the days of Visicalc.

    It's only because most secretaries are either too thick or too busy preening themselves to change habits.

  12. ducatis'r us
    FAIL

    How old?

    How is Office for MAC 2011 'years old'. Looks pretty much as horrid as Office 2010 for Windows to me!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Apple's überpopular fondleslab, the "magical and revolutionary""

    STOP IT! JUST STOP IT! NOW!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "It's only because most secretaries are either too thick or too busy preening themselves to change habits."

    Wow, make yourself look stupid, in one easy step!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      File those nails !

      Looks like we have a secretary

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