Evidence Builds for Microsoft Office on the iPad in 2013
Office is coming to iOS, according to multiple reports from the past two months. The latest ones crossed the wire this week, when bloggers came across several mentions of the suspectedly upcoming launch in support documents published by Microsoft’s Romanian subsidiary.
The text included keywords such as “Office Mobile for iPhone” and list “Excel for iPad,” “PowerPoint for iPad”, providing more confirmation that iPhone and iPad owners will soon be able to get their hands on the popular productivity suite.
The evidence is starting to pile up. French blog Mac4Ever also discovered a reference to Excel pour iPad on Monday, and two months ago screenshots of what appears to be a new Office layout emerged on the web. Around the same time, a product manager for Microsft’s Czeh outlet by the name if Petr Bobek was quoted as saying Office is coming to iOS in 2013.
The company dismissed the statement as inaccurate within 24 hours, and did so again this week. But one can’t help but think that there may be some truth to the rumors, considering the origins and sheer quantity of the reports.
“History repeats itself this week. In an email, a Microsoft spokesperson told eWEEK, that “the information on the sites was incorrect. “We do not have any products by these names,” the spokesperson said, adding that as far as plans, “we do not comment on rumors or speculation.”
Windows Phone OS competes with Apple’s iOS, but making Office available on the latter platform won’t take away from the appeal of WP8. After all, the suite has been available on Macs since 1989.
Google seems to be taking a similar approach with its mobile software: Google Maps launched on iOS today.
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