Microsoft office on iPad... Soon?

[TheHeretic]

durbster said:

Oh right.

I thought the contention was about whether touch-screen tablets are practical for administrative type business, regardless of the OS.

The iPad will never replace the workplace computer. However, as enterprise take up increases, on whatever tablet, be it win 8 or iOS, android, etc, then it makes sense to make it available as a business tool, and as a nice cash cow.

[skeeterm5]

CloudOn and Dropbox allow full MS Office creation, editing and viewing. Works well for me.

S

[DoctorX]

skeeterm5 said:

CloudOn and Dropbox allow full MS Office creation, editing and viewing. Works well for me.

S

I like it. Need a keyboard though and Excel not easy to use.

[Anubis]

I found this thread from last year. I'd like to thank the following for their contributions and just proves that some on here talk out of their rear end and are quick to put others down...

Regarding my statement about MS never allowing their Office products on iOS devices:

Paul 2000 said:

Everything about this post is wrong. Have you ever seen any Apple products, or did you just post for comedy value?

Thank you Paul 2000. Unfortunately 13 months have now passed and you were in fact wrong; but hey ho best if I don't question those on PH nerd threads as they know best though aye.

Dracoro said:

Apart from the rest of the garbage you posted...

I believe everything I said actually turned out to be correct. Ironically, over a year down the line and several MS product releases later it is you that is sprouting garbage.

TheHeretic said:

Why not? It is a massive market, and they would be fools not to tap it.

True having it on iOS would be a big hit (mostly for Apple's iPad division), but then again it'll also stop a large chunk of people buying MS tablets and PCs...like I kept saying over a year ago.

BenM77 said:

Microsoft are a software company are they not ? I thought the only computer they made was the Xbox.

If there is a big enough demand then it makes sense to meet it, big profits involved.

Yes; yes they are. As I kept stating MS will never put the full Office package on iOS and have got their own Surface tablet to compete with others.

and last but not least...

thinfourth2 said:

Just as well you don't work with computers

...unfortunately for you i do. Thank god I have some business sense; seems you don't have any.

So, there you have it folks. Proof that some on here probably sit in dark corners with their computers and sprout nonsense in utter belief that they are always right. If someone dares put a different opinion across you get shot down, since these dark overlord keyboard wizards know anything and everything to do with computers. Shame about their business acumen and common sense though...

[0000]

I don't think it was the question of if Office would appear on the iPad that got you the ridicule.

[Guvernator]

Wow a whole year, that's a long time to carry a chip on your shoulder. Well done

[Dracoro]

Anubis said:

Dracoro said:

Apart from the rest of the garbage you posted...

I believe everything I said actually turned out to be correct. Ironically, over a year down the line and several MS product releases later it is you that is sprouting garbage.

Please point out WHAT I posted that was garbage.

Just to re-iterate the garbage YOU posted.

Anubis said:

Why would Microsoft ever allow Apple to run one of their most successful software packages ever outside their own Windows environment?

You were proved wrong about this as MS Office has been available on Macs for YEARS.

Anubis said:

Apple flatly refuse to have anything on their hardware except Apple approved products. No Silverlight, .Net, flash or anything else - can you honestly see MS suddenly being generous and give a direct competitor a piece of their own pie? I just can't see it happening.

As I said last year, Macs DO have Silverlight and Flash on them.

NOTE that I posted my comments BEFORE you backtracked (as you clearly realised you were wrong) about it not being on Macs. That still conflicts with your "logic" about Apple not wanting to put MS stuff on their devices as they clearly DO (not just all of them). Or put it this way, WHY do they allow MS office on Macs if they were as protectionist as you seem to think.

MS OneNote (part of office) IS now on iOS. It wouldn't surprise me to see the rest of office on iOS at some point (Maybe, Maybe not, we'll see) - it would take quite a while to turn around anyway, it would be a large development project.

But really, dragging up an old thread with nothing new to add, why? As someone above said, a chip on shoulder there I suspect.

[Dracoro]

Oh, and as for it not being good "business sense" to release Office on iPads, it seems someone in the business industry disagrees with you.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2415479,00.as...

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/enterprise/380017/is-o...

[luke111s]

I didn't think it was news that Microsoft are producing Office for iPad?

A release date would be nice though

As an aside, Microsoft already makes:

Skydrive for iPad
OneNote for iPad
Lync for iPad
Sharepoint Newsfeed for iPad
Skype for iPad
Yammer for iPad
Other non-enterprise software for iPad

TheHeretic said:

durbster said:

Oh right.

I thought the contention was about whether touch-screen tablets are practical for administrative type business, regardless of the OS.

The iPad will never replace the workplace computer. However, as enterprise take up increases, on whatever tablet, be it win 8 or iOS, android, etc, then it makes sense to make it available as a business tool, and as a nice cash cow.

It is getting closer. Maybe as more of a tool or for mobile access for now...

Native mail, calendar and web (Intranet) client that is enterprise managed with access to enterprise file storage (see below)
"iCloud" across any device including enterprise Windows desktops servers
Windows TS that is (will be) optimised for tablets (i.e. correct scrolling, tablet friendly overlay)

All stored encrypted with remote wipe and all of those goodies.

It may not be there yet, but I am sure there is plenty of development work in the area.

[wolves_wanderer]

I think the main problem with getting Office on the iPad is that Apple will take 30% of the selling price. It wouldn't surprise me if it could be done through the Office 365 subscription and entering a code to activate a free app from the App Store, cutting out Apple.

[Dracoro]

It may, however, be more expensive to develop the 365 web app, it would probably be a far richer interface as a native app and can be used offline (this is important). Apple may well take the 30% cut (I'm sure MS could try to get Apple to have a smaller cut given the overall revenue from selling Office) but 70% of a lot is still more substantial than 100% of not a lot

[Badgerboy]

I got bored waiting, so have started delivering Office 2010 via Remote App to some of the corporate iPads.

Interface is a little funny, but it's surprisingly functional. We shouldn't ave bought the bloody things anyway, Apple have an interesting take on the ActiveSync protocol which occasionally stuffs everyone's calendars up.

Still, the board wanted them.....

[TheHeretic]

Anubis said:

Chip on shoulder

Really, you think my comment was an 'out of arse' comment? I suggest you take your 'chip' and shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

[ZesPak]

luke111s said:

I didn't think it was news that Microsoft are producing Office for iPad?

A release date would be nice though

As an aside, Microsoft already makes:

Skydrive for iPad
OneNote for iPad
Lync for iPad
Sharepoint Newsfeed for iPad
Skype for iPad
Yammer for iPad
Other non-enterprise software for iPad

Sorry for the thread hijack, but the products you list are products that are still vesting themselves. Office is the de facto "office" software, and, as said, Office for iPad would be a huge market if done right.
As it stands though, I think they are more focussed on going for the enterprise/tablet market (priorities and such), and Office is a big USP for their Win 8 tablet, I doubt they'll be "giving" it away any time soon :/.

They made it for Mac as it was a sure market, but when they started it OSX had about 2% market share so was far from a "threat" (not to mention that they still sell windows to a lot of Mac users, and a Retail windows brings them a lot more money than an OEM one, so, ironically, a lot of Mac users are better customers than a number of Windows users).

In short: MS wants the big piece of pie from the tablet market that is still available in the slower adapting enterprise sector. Having a fully compatible Office is potentially a big USP in that market and they'd be fools to give it away.