MS Office Could Be Available as iPad App Next Year (NewsFactor)

In a move that would boost the iPad's transition from primarily a media consumption device to more of a productivity tool, Apple and Microsoft may be ready to offer the Office suite as an app for the groundbreaking tablet.

Currently, iPad owners can edit or create documents, presentations and spreadsheets using QuickOffice, a lighter version of the suite created and sold by an independent company. But the industry-leading Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote aren't yet available for the iPad.

For Lion, Too

That could change when Microsoft produces the next generation of Office next year, which will also include an update for Mac computers running the newest operating system, OS X Lion, according to the News Corp. iPad newspaper, The Daily.

The report said Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft is betting big on getting Office to mobile platforms as the tablet market explodes, an important hedge in case the next version of the software giant's signature operating system, Windows 8, doesn't live up to expectations.

Office is already available on smartphones running Windows Phone Series 7 and its predecessor, Windows Mobile.

Microsoft products have a long history with Apple, going back to 1984 when Microsoft Word was released for the first Mac computer. Five years later, Microsoft began selling Office for Macintosh, including Word 4.0, Excel 2.2, PowerPoint 2.01, and Mail 1.37

What Took So Long?

Pairing the iPad and Office is so mutually beneficial -- helping the tablet further penetrate the business market and boosting the adoption of Office -- that it seems like a no-brainer for Apple and Microsoft. So why won't it happen until the iPad's third year?

"The length of time probably indicates the difficulty of paring down a multi-gigabyte application for a smaller capacity, lower-performance system," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. "I also expect that a lot of the work Microsoft is putting into this has been leveraged from its own Windows tablet development efforts. If all this comes together as reported, it could give the iPad an additional boost in commercial environments."

King said that despite the iPad's staggering growth -- more than 11 million were sold last quarter, according to NDP Group -- one obstacle it faces in the business world is that employees and business owners are resistant to change and prefer the tools they're used to.

"It isn't a matter of simplicity and low cost," he said. "If it were, Google Apps would be common in virtually every business.

"So far as productivity apps go, Office is the dominant player, hands down. If Microsoft can deliver a good quality version of Office for the iPad, it will automatically make Apple an option in many organizations and industries that have thus far resisted the company's offerings."

The Daily said the iPad version of Office could come sooner than the updated version for Mac and Windows 8 at the end of 2012.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111201/tc_nf/81187

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