Microsoft Office for iPad has been rumored for years and now a new report claims Microsoft will unveil its Office suite for Apple's iPad at an event on March 27.
2014 is shaping up to be the year that Microsoft embraces its two biggest rivals, Apple and Google. We saw the first sign of this at Mobile World Congress when Nokia, who is now owned by Microsoft, launched three smartphones running Google's Android OS and not Microsoft's Windows Phone OS. The smartphones run a modified version of Android, similar to Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets, which allow Nokia and Amazon to swap Google services out for Microsoft's and Amazon's. This keeps the devices and money out of Google's reach.
Microsoft is showing Apple some love too, the company just launched a Mac version of its OneNote Office application and also announced that it would be releasing a new version of Office for Mac OS X later this year. The company is reportedly going to finally bring its long-rumored Office suite to iPad and will unveil it at an event on March 27.
A new report claims that Microsoft's new CEO, Saty Nadella, will host his first press event in San Francisco on March 27 where the company will show the world Microsoft Office for iPad. The report says that the Office suite's interface and features will be similar to the version already offered for iPhone and will require an Office 365 subscription for editing files. Microsoft Office for iPad will feature optimized versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Microsoft has been rumored to be working on Office for iPad for the last few years but reportedly didn't want to release it because the company thought users would choose a Windows tablet that can run Office over an iPad that couldn't. The company even used this in many of its ads promoting Windows tablets. Microsoft loved to highlight the fact that Windows 8 tablets could run the full version of Microsoft Office and be productive, while iPad couldn't and was portrayed as a consumption device. Microsoft clearly has had a change of heart and would prefer to try and sell Office to the millions of iPad users.
Microsoft Office for iPad could be too little too late for the company, as Apple now includes its own iWork productivity suite for free with iPads, iPhones, and iPod touch. Pricing for Microsoft Office for iPad hasn't been revealed, but we should find that detail and more on March 27.
