MS Office to arrive on iOS

[FGMPR]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/21/2813782/microsoft-office-for-ipad-screenshot-leak

This is massive news, imo. Microsoft obviously feel threatened enough about the potential loss of revenue from their biggest moneymaker to release their number one program on their biggest rivals system before the launch of Windows 8. This would of likely been the killer app for W8 tablets, so its an interesting development in the least.

For me, Pages is a weak word processor that is limited to note taking in lectures. Its footnoting abilities, for example is pathetic, so I'll be very happy to see Office arrive.

Another interesting factor will be price. Pages, Keynote and Numbers currently run at $10 each, so you would think Office would have to be within that strike-range, though the Office name alone should give them more leeway to charge a higher price. Will this lower price (even if it was as much as $50 per app) devalue the PC/Mac versions of Office to the point where they will be forced to charge less? How will MS deal with this balancing act? They absolutely can't afford to mess this up, as MS Office is HUGE business for them.

Thoughts?

 

[red+black]

Rumours of MS releasing Office for iPad is old news.

And regarding the recent news, again, it's just a rumour:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/microsoft-denies-rumor-of-office-software-for-ipad/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2504...ble_on_apples_ipad_dont_believe_the_hype.html

 

[SugarShane]

It's been available for Macs for years, so it was logical that they'd eventually put it on ios and get some money from a crowd they would normally get nothing from. A lot of iPad pinheads don't even know what Pages is so it makes a lot of sense to get the familiarity of Word, etc out there.

 

[ManWithNoName]

It's been available for Macs for years, so it was logical that they'd eventually put it on ios and get some money from a crowd they would normally get nothing from. A lot of iPad pinheads don't even know what Pages is so it makes a lot of sense to get the familiarity of Word, etc out there.

It's not happening.

 

[PP34]

It's not happening.

Why not?

 

[ManWithNoName]

Why not?

Read the links R+B posted. It's just a hoax.

 

[Mingo]

They'd be destroying their Windows 8 tablets before they even launch if this happened in my opinion.

 

[red+black]

Don't forget that an iPad is supposed to be a device for consumption rather than creation. As such, I don't think it really matters if MS Office ever comes to iOS or not. An iPad (or iPhone) can read documents and spreadsheets natively without the need for MS Office or Apple iWork.

I just don't think Microsoft will be too bothered releasing $10 mobile versions of Word and Excel for Apple devices.

 

[Mingo]

Don't forget that an iPad is supposed to be a device for consumption rather than creation. As such, I don't think it really matters if MS Office ever comes to iOS or not.

I agree and disagree. I agree it should be considered a content consumption device, but I don't agree that Office wouldn't benefit it based on the fact alot of the public simply don't know what it's best used for and just buy it cause it's an iPad. If I had a dollar for every time someone asked at work if you could put Microsoft Office on an iPad and not gone for it because you can't I'd be quite well off.

 

[red+black]

True, good point. Possibly the first question many people might ask: "Can I put Office on it?" If the answer was yes, then perhaps even more people would seriously consider buying an iPad. But I'm lead to believe that iPads are already selling ok

I don't know much about the history of MS Office on Mac OS, but I don't think offering Office for Mac hurts Microsoft. I would suggest Office for iPad would be more in Apple's interests than Microsoft's and could take future sales away from Windows 8 tablets.