“An alleged roadmap for Microsoft’s coming ‘Gemini’ wave of Office updates, if accurate, indicates Microsoft’s Office for iOS and Android — as well as Outlook for Windows RT — may be further away than many hoped and expected,” Mary Jo Foley reports for ZDNet.
MacDailyNews Take: The further away, the better.
“The 1.5 wave of the Gemini updates is set for April 2014, the roadmap indicates. This is when the Office team will deliver the next version of Mac Office,” Foley reports. “Also on the roadmap for fall 2014 is what’s listed as iOS/Android support for Office. One would assume this is the expected and widely rumored Office for iPad release. It could, however, be Office for iPhone and Android phone, given that it’s not listed on the roadmap as being tablet-specific.”
Foley reports, “I do not know how old this purported roadmap is, but my contact indicated it was likely current as of the start of 2013.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The longer Microsoft dithers, the more people wake up to the fact that Office is not necessary. iPad is taking the enterprise by storm. No Microsoft Office needed. Take your time, dummies.
Related articles:
Apple’s iOS continues to dominate the mobile enterprise – February 26, 2013
9 out of 10 businesses support Apple iPhones and iPads – February 6, 2013
Gartner: By 2014, Apple will be as accepted by enterprise IT as Microsoft is today – February 4, 2013
NetSuite CEO: Apple will become the model for the successful next-gen enterprise software company – January 10, 2013
Apple’s incursions into the enterprise begin to add up – December 13, 2012
Enterprises buying iPhones ‘in droves’: Here’s the tipping point – November 27, 2012
Apple Macs continue to invade the enterprise – September 5, 2012
Gartner: Apple Macs invading the Windows PC-dominated enterprise – June 6, 2012
Report: 6 of top 10 enterprise devices using Good Technology are iOS, 97% of tablets are iPad – April 26, 2012
Apple iPad in the enterprise: A videoconferencing dream machine – April 10, 2012
Demand for Apple’s new iPad has powerful impact on corporate market – March 13, 2012
Office for iOS — 3 years past any expected release date, and don’t hold your breath for the next 3 years either.
Plan B started. Windows RT is limping along and Microsoft’s savior is going to be an Office Suite.
At this rate they might as well not bother. I can’t see myself installing Office for iOS. iWork for iOS works plenty good. I just don’t see where Office for iOS fits in.
As for Office for Mac, I think I’ll stick with the 2011 version. Good enough for me. I can’t see why I would need the 2014 version which will be filled end to end with useless Ribbon stuff.
In fact Office upgrades are getting to be a bit irrelevant. The existing versions work as well as can be expected and I don’t see myself throwing another dime in Microsoft’s direction.
If I can sync my Spreadsheets between my iPad and iMac, that would be heaven. I’d eve go so far as to buy the 128Gb iPad if necessary (most likely would be).
Funny thing is, if the 128 were required to run Office on an iPad, its possible Apple could make more than MSFT on the update.
What was the last good Word? 5.21a or something like that?
Word 14.3.2 for the Mac (as part of Office 2011)
One can turn off the hideous ribbon, thank goodness.
Yes, it does many things that Pages cannot do.
Yes, it comes with some confusing Microsoft conventions and interfaces, as usual, but in the end, it really is the most comprehensive word processor native to the Mac platform.
BORING !!! Oh, AND A LIE..
iOS Office available in fall of 2014. What? BFD! Is Mister Softy channeling RIM here? They’re announcing the alleged availability of software more than a year away? Oh, yeah, I’ll be waiting for that one. Geeze.
Note that Microsoft didn’t announce anything, the report was based on a leaked Office roadmap.
Such a great time for most of the market to jettison MS Office products for good, on mobile especially.
Apple is about the luckiest SOB around to have Steve Ballmer as head of MS.
In other words “never”
By 2014?…
Will the company still be around by that time?
boy I hope so, since Seinfeld went off the air Ballmer has been my sole source of comedy.
Oh sure. Microsoft has enough cash laying around to limp along for years and years.
Not that the cash is being used for any good, except to pay the owners of start up companies huge sums for their work, which will whither and die deep within the Redmond complex.
even on Android there are many alternative to Office
who the f— cares – the big companies the enterprises – what do they know?
Mac has many alternatives.. we dont need you Microsoft go to hell
If there is something on the market that is as comprehensive as MS Excel, I would get it.
Numbers doesn’t cut it. Till then…
Apple has a golden opportunity here to make Microsoft completely irrelevant in the mobile office suite arena. Apple needs to make a significant iWork app update to its iOS version, coordinated with an OS X iWork significant update.
An iWork suite which had important feature parity with Word, could seamlessly open Word and Excel docs (without losing significant formatting, etc.) and sync’d flawlessly over iOS and OS X devices could put a huge nail in Microsoft’s coffin . . . you know, the one they’ll recycle from their iPhone funeral charade.
In my household, Microsoft has been irrelevant since 2000.
=:~)
I’ll be deploying it to the 900 or so ipads under my control on day one.
Yawn
What’s Office?
Office for Mac needs to support R2L writing capacity, as last version Pages has now.