According to ZDNet's Mary Joe Foley, Microsoft is working on a version of Office for iPad, and it may show up sooner than we think. Microsoft has apparently acknowledge that they are indeed working on Office for iPad, but it was believed it would show up later in 2014. Foley says her contacts say otherwise, and it maybe here sooner than we think.
Releasing Office for iPad is a very smart move for Microsoft. The days of Microsoft dominating the platform wars is over. They need to get their products on every platform and compete based on performance of their products, much like Google has done with Chrome and Amazon with Kindle.
Foley also suggests Office for iPad will work with OneDrive and may require an Office 365 subscription.
Microsoft officials have acknowledged, in a somewhat roundabout way, that it exists and is coming. [...] According to one of my contacts, Ballmer OK'd the suggestion by the Office team that they'd bring Office for iPad to market as soon as it was ready, even though that would likely mean before the Windows 8 version. I'm hearing that new date for Office for iPad is some time in the first half of calendar 2014.
Releasing Office for iPad is a very smart move for Microsoft. The days of Microsoft dominating the platform wars is over. They need to get their products on every platform and compete based on performance of their products, much like Google has done with Chrome and Amazon with Kindle.
Foley also suggests Office for iPad will work with OneDrive and may require an Office 365 subscription.