If there’s something that has always piqued my interest in Windows 8 tablets then it is Microsoft’s Office Suite. While there are very many alternatives to Microsoft’s Office from various startups, indie developers and small and large companies, still, Office remains far superior. Even Apple’s iWorks has always played catch up to it. Yet Microsoft has continuously left the over 200 million iPads out there with no access to one of the most popular software on the planet.
We heard that Microsoft was in the last stages of testing a superior touch-friendly version of Office that would first debut on Windows tablets and then make its way to the iPad last October. According to Reuters, that time has come and new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is expected to unveil Office for iPad at an event for media and industry executives in San Francisco on the 27th of March.
Microsoft has recently made surprising moves including slashing OEM prices for Windows 8 machines that will retail for less than $250 by dropping the price of Windows 8 from $50 to $15 per copy according to a recent Bloomberg report. Windows and Office are Microsoft’s main cash cows both at a personal level and at the enterprise market level with Windows alone accounting for $4.4 billion of the $19.9 billion the company made in revenues for Q4 2013. Just a few hours ago, Microsoft released its note-taking app, OneNote, to the Mac for the first time; a move that many attribute to the rise of popular cross-platform note-taking apps like Evernote.
Will Office come to the iPad later this month? Let’s wait and see.
