Is Microsoft Really Bringing Office Apps to iPad?

[sethusmaximus]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]MS doesn't need the money that badly in the short term and giving Office to iPad users will hurt them more long term as there will be no incentive to buy a Windows tablet.MS needs to go back to playing the long game.[/citation]

Thank the gods someone else understands why this is such a bad idea! One of the reasons I was really drawn to WP7.5 is it's truly unique ability to edit and create real Word docs and Excel spreadsheets.

If the iPad could do this, the only incentive for users to buy a Win8 tablet over iOS would be the Metro UI... I love the Metro UI, but as far as I can tell with everyone else, it's pretty hit or miss.

 

[Northwestern]

I'm sticking to Office 2000. Office 2010 and on is just too cluttered for me.

 

[jimmy-bee]

[citation][nom]Parsian[/nom]Microsoft is a great software company.[/citation]
Troll.
Blah Blah, Open Office serves me just fine and Apple can keep their i-Tampon.

 

[ericburnby]

[citation][nom]Zetto[/nom]been doing exactly that for 8 yrs now on an IBM X41 tablet, it's still twice the machine a "modern"tablet is. One Note is the bomb on it....[/citation]
Cut the crap. Do you think nobody else here has used any of the older tablet PC's? The original x41 is a POS compared to a new iPad. Clutzy, heavy, slow, and poor response with lousy touch gestures.

 

[extremepcs]

[citation][nom]psiboy[/nom]Powerpoint on iPad would be pointless as the iPad has no hdmi (mini/micro) or vga outputs that I am aware of... can't really see that small screen being remotely useful for presenting to a room full of people....[/citation]

Apples makes a VGA adapter that iPad's can use to output to a projector. We do that for training.

 

[dark_lord69]

Well they have Office for Mac so I guess no reason to stop there and I could see them releasing thier software on the iPad as well.

 

[JohnTomFerg]

With MS Office (from a business use perspective) there is a lot of customer code and integration development that occurs on a Windows platform. It isn't obvious to me (without a backend server) how cross iOS App API's could bring that ease of customization and cross software integration to the consumer. I'm evening thinking from the perspective of a downstream ISV where the Office package might be a prerequisite for another larger piece of Enterprise software.

Any thoughts on this? Has it already been tackled for other iOS apps?

 

[ericburnby]

[citation][nom]jimmy-bee[/nom]Troll.Blah Blah, Open Office serves me just fine and Apple can keep their i-Tampon.[/citation]
Open Office is great for people doing "simple" things. Try to import a compelx Word or Excel document with macros and see how "compatible" Open Office really is.

 

[eddieroolz]

Not sure about the need for an Office application on the iOS platform as I do not own an iPad, though if priced within $5 it can sell copies.

 

[Guest]

"The current version of the desktop client, Office 2011, already supports Mac OS versions up to Snow Leopard."

I've been running Office 2011 under Lion for a few months now with no apparent ill effects. Perhaps it doesn't support some new Lion features, but I haven't noticed any short comings.