“The Seattle-based company let slip the possibility of a suite for the new tablet during a demonstration of the brand new Office for Mac 2011, which is scheduled for release in late 2010,” Smith reports. “‘Yeah, it’s something that we’re looking at,’ said Microsoft’s Mike Tedesco, who is the Senior Product Manager for WindowsBU. ‘Obviously the announcement (of the iPad) is really fresh and there’s nothing to announce or nothing that I can talk to you about today.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We don’t need no stinking Office.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TheMightyFinder” for the heads up.]
Lol why bother if they think it’s going to flop
MDN Magic Word… “couldnt”. As in, their Office suite couldn’t be any cooler or simpler than iWork for iPad.
Vapourware plain and simple!
=:~)
Nobody cares any more, MS.
Isn’t it obvious? That way Microsoft can figure out how to copy the iPad for their own Microsoft Tablet UI.
Say what you will about Office for the iPad, this is still very good news for Apple’s iPad. (as long as it’s better than PhotoShop for the iPhone)
A PowerPoint Viewer at least would be nice since this thing can be hooked up to a projector. I know, I know, Keynotes is better, but my wife frequently does presentation in which she does not have control over the slides or the program they are created in. Being able to use iPad to drive a projector would be nice.
Does anyone know if the Apple remote (new or old) will work on the iPad?
Waaaa! The iPad is too expensive! $500 for the iPad and $400 for the Office suite to go with it! Waaaaa!
Hurray! Now we can have and pass onto Windows users, Word & Excel macro viruses!
In response to ppt viewer. iWork will open power points and also drive a projector using VGA adaptor
Not to say that MS office stinks, it’s just that iWork for the iPad would probably be better.
This shouldn’t be a problem. Just as Apple denied (and will deny again) Opera because it competes against Safari, Apple will deny Microsoft’s Office app because it will compete against the iWork suite of apps. QED
But why, we’ve all ready haveiWorks & Pages!
I’ll pass!
Yeah, Microsoft may be looking into porting Office, but there is no way they would sell them as low as iWork. I could see them selling the suite at $60 because some people will want “the real thing” and be willing to pay for it. No Office is the one reason my wife is no longer looking to buy the iPad. Yes, she knows that iWork will read and write in Office formats, but doesn’t trust it. I’ll show her how it works on my iPad next month and see how long it takes her to change her mind…!
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It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’ – Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman
Then, there’s Ballmer ‘allowing’ some ‘journalists’ at a MS sponsored event telling them that it’s ‘OK’ for them to be using their MacBook Pros — as long as they have Windows installed onto them.
Microsoft: Make sure to use your Crapple products with our inNOvative software! Sorry, no discount for you MacTards. ‘Cuz you didn’t originally by a WinPC.
@jim
No, I think apple would approve the office suite, as they get 30% of app sales, and at the office suite’s current pricing, apple would make a shitload.
by or buy?
@The Other Steve
If the made photoshop for the ipad and let me use it as a waccom tablet so I could actually see what I was drawing on.. I’d preorder one as soon as possible
I’ve said it before, but iWork on the iPad signals to me that apple are starting to push there office suit into new territory and as there are plenty of people who will use the iPad in conjunction with a windows PC it will introduce iWork to a whole new demographic. So expect to see iWork ported to windows in the near future.
This is actually funny..
Would they price it at 9.97 each for Powerpoint, Excel and Word?
what a crock!!!
This makes sense for MS. It’s another platform just like the Mac, and they know it’s a very viable platform from a market share perspective. To a large extent, the product team doesn’t care if it’s Windows or not… at some level they do (stock options)… but they want their products to succeed everywhere).
It may not be as cooling adapted for the iPad as iWork, but it would help business people who need to author, edit, and export MS Office files. I know iWork will do it… but there’s always translation and subtle compatibility problems. And some people are stuck with having to use Office in their companies.
This would only be good for Apple. First, it would make the iPad more compelling to the business traveler crowd, and, second, it would make iWork look really cool in comparison.
“No! No! A thousand times no!”
M$ shall never sully the screen of my iPad that I’ll be in line to buy as soon as they open the doors.
Sorry, but I can’t imagine the user interface for those three on a touch screen. You know MS won’t update the software, it will just be all the same dialog boxes and buttons for a mouse.
Example: Archos 9, “Windows just doesn’t seem at home when squeezed into this 1.8-pound (0.8-kilogram) slab, with a touch-sensitive screen that is 8.9 inches (22 centimeters) on the diagonal. It’s sluggish, and the controls aren’t adapted to the size of the screen or the fact that there’s no real keyboard or mouse. On-screen keyboards kept popping up in the wrong places, blocking the fields where I wanted to enter text and the buttons I wanted to push. I struggled to hit the little ‘x’ in the corner of the window to close it.”
I rest my case.
I hate MS as much as the rest of you fan boys. However, this can only be good for Apple and the iPad. Face it, most people use MS Office at their workplace and they don’t want to learn a new system or deal with things that could be messed up in the conversion process. For this thing to be successful, it has to be viewed as a replacement for peoples laptop instead of a giant iPod Touch. For that to happen, a lot of people are going to expect to see MS Office on there. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying that until iWork is the standard in the business arena people are going to expect Office.
This is WONDERFUL news!!!
They will be able to strip out all the useless stuff and hone Word down to a usable application. Of course, it will be called Word Pad. Power Point will be called Power Point Flash Cards.
Yes, light and usable. But, where can I put the pen and keyboard?