“There have been rumours about Office for iPad for a couple of years now — indeed, a Microsoft executive can rarely appear in public these days without getting asked about it,” Steve Ranger writes for ZDNet. “Although Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently seemed to quash speculation about it once more, the rumour keeps on springing up. That’s because Microsoft’s decisions about Office for iPad send a signal about its broader strategy.”
“Gartner research director Michael Silver also argues that Microsoft should release Office for iPad — and soon,” Ranger writes. “As the PC market continues to erode and the tablet market continues to grow, there’s still a really big opportunity there, he argues.”
Ranger writes, “Microsoft also has to make a bigger strategic decision. ‘The Microsoft Office group needs to decide if they’re in the business of selling Office products or propping up Windows,’ says Silver. ‘If they’re in the business of selling Office, then the iPad and other tablets are a huge opportunity — and if they don’t do it, someone else will… The danger is that people will see a $20 or $30 product, get used to it, and decide that it’s good enough.'”
“By offering Office on the iPad, Microsoft would be effectively acknowledging that Apple had won: it would be an admission that Windows 8 tablets — including its own Surface Pro — had failed to grab market share,” Ranger writes. “In turn, this would signify that the tenure of Windows as the default platform for enterprise customers and consumers is over.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The more people who learn the fact that they do not need Office and the quicker they learn it, the better.
For all we care (being 100% Microsoft free for as long as we can remember) wait until you’re dead, Microsoft. The world would be a better place without you and your ilk.
Related articles:
Microsoft exec sidesteps ‘Office for iPad’ questions – February 26, 2013
To stellar CEO Steve Ballmer, Office without iPad support makes ‘a lot of sense’ – January 30, 2013
Crash and burn: Windows RT tablet sales in 2012 likely to total less than one million units – – January 30, 2013
Windows 8 bloat: Microsoft’s 64GB Surface Pro will offer users only 23GB of available storage space – January 29, 2013
Microsoft doesn’t reveal Surface sales, and probably never will – January 24, 2013
Microsoft blames PC makers for Windows 8 flop – January 24, 2013
Fujitsu President: Weak demand for Microsoft’s Windows 8 killing PC Sales – December 28, 2012
Philip Greenspun: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is a Christmas gift for someone you hate – December 7, 2012
MKM Partners cuts Microsoft price target, estimates on lower than expected Surface, Windows 8 sales – December 5, 2012
Why Microsoft’s Surface tablet is doomed – December 5, 2012
App developers shun Microsoft’s Surface tablet – December 4, 2012
Microsoft Surface Pro to offer only half the battery life of Apple’s latest iPad with Retina display – November 30, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface Pro iPad killer to start at $899 – November 29, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet flops, orders reportedly cut in half – November 29, 2012
TechCrunch’s Siegler reviews Microsoft Surface RT: ‘It’s time for a drop test – right into the garbage can’ – November 19, 2012
Slate reviews Microsoft’s Surface tablet: Too slow, mercilessly buggy; why is it so bad? – November 6, 2012
InfoWorld reviews Microsoft Surface RT: A disappointment; you’re better off with Apple’s iPad – October 31, 2012
Gizmodo reviews Microsoft Surface RT: Do not buy; inferior to Apple’s iPad; the worst of both worlds – October 25, 2012
The Verge reviews Microsoft Surface RT tablet: ‘The whole thing is honestly perplexing; who is this for?’ – October 24, 2012
ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
Analyst meets with big computer maker, finds ‘general lack of enthusiasm’ for Windows 8 – June 8, 2012
Dvorak: Windows 8 an unmitigated disaster; unusable and annoying; it makes your teeth itch – June 3, 2012
The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
More good news for Apple: Microsoft previews Windows 8 (with video) – June 1, 2011
Microsoft is irrelevant.
well, other than a source for high comedy.
or low comedy
I received a Word doc attached to an email yesterday. I was stunned. I realized I had not had this happen in several years… and I hadn’t even noticed!!!
Exactly. Post-PC means Post-Microsoft, after all.
No,it’s about the expensive, piggish, memory-hogging bloatware crap that would without a doubt be Office on an iPad. I’ll stick with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, thanks. DocsToGo Premium does a wonderful job, too.
That would look funny – 50% of the screen real estate would be buttons and icons and menus and stuff like that.
But I hope Apple will make a better Pages one day. Documents are looking too different on iOS and OSX versions of Pages. Not to mention the terrible wooden look in the iPad.
Work for Jony.
MS is in a tough spot making a version of office for iPad.
Any version they release will be a glorified viewer because office on the PC is really a whole development platform that is integrated into various business work flows.
Its simply too massive to just “port” it and even if they could port 90% of it over the usability will suffer.
Who the hell wants to do complex data modeling, business process scripting and workflow creation on an iPad when they have a PC with 2 and 3 large screens sitting there?
All Microsoft can hope to do is make a mini version of office that competes with the existing offerings on the iPad.
Microsoft will one day become Apple’s bi*tch! They will have Ballmer doing monkey tricks!
As ever, striving to be relevant with polite business level writing.
“100% Microsoft free”.
That has a ring to it!
Sounds like the internet destroyed your life.
You should just unplug and go outside and enjoy the fresh air.
Botvinnik is that you?
tl;dr
Hard comment to follow …
hmm, TwoDale’s alter ego again.
no, can’t be, Ruth has better command of the English language.
So a squirrel and a duck walk into a bar……….
A skeleton goes into a bar and orders a beer and a mop.
Sweetie, the Caps Lock on your PC is on.
This person is full of shit.
And they don’t even talk about iWork for iPad, a full blown office suite that has incredible functionality and usability. The related Apps have been top sellers on the App Store since forever.
Nobody needs another office on the iPad, that’s the reality number 1. Number 2 MS doesn’t want to give 30% to Apple on Office sales.
Wake up blowhard media.
Why would we ever think that the purpose of Microsoft Office group is to do anything other than prop up Windows? It’s the only reasonable explanation for the annoying bugs, inadequacies and Windows-like habits of Office for Mac.
The reasons why ms is delaying the release of office to iPads is cause few months ago ms offices got raided and all the iPads stolen 🙂 that has hindered office for ipad development
Tell me something. Since masses are assess. Apple is persecuted every way from Sunday. Yet microshit can ensure they are not an open platform. They can try to screw with mac users. Does it work. No. It just makes us use Anything but microshit in every aspect. Are they dumb. Yes. They could at least get some revenue from mac users to license their shit programs