We’ve been hearing whispers about Office landing on the iPad since the dawn of time. The latest rumor pinpoints release date for November of this year. Interesting enough, Redmond is apparently gearing up to launch Office not only for the iPad, but for the iPhone/iPod touch as well as Android tablets…
According to Boy Genius Report editor Jonathan Geller, based on a tip from “a reliable source”, Microsoft is currently planning to release the full Office suite for both Apple’s iPad and Android tablets some time in November of this year.
Additionally, our source has seen Microsoft Office running on an iPad first-hand and has said that it looks almost identical to the previous leak from The Daily a few months back, despite the fact that Microsoft flat out denied that the app was authentic.
Conspicuously, the source said nothing about Office for Windows 8-powered tablets.
Geller also pointed out that Microsoft is likely to bring Office to the iPhone and iPod touch as well “as we’re told the loading screen in the app clearly said ‘Office for iOS’ and not just iPad”.
The regular Office for Windows runs on non-ARM Windows 8 tablets in legacy mode, but Microsoft made no promise in regard to providing a Metro-optimized version.
With the iPad still commanding a lion’s share of the tablet market, Office for iPad seems to be a credible possibility.
Surely Microsoft wouldn’t want to miss the boat and lose potentially high sales from iPad owners, even if the App Store already has several nice Office alternatives, such as the Quickoffice Pro HD suite specifically optimized for the iPad.
Would you pay for the privilege of having the full-blown Microsoft Office suite on your iPad?