Office To the iPad?
Redmond columnist Mary Jo Foley, a long-time Microsoft watcher, thinks there will be an iPad port.
I'm not sure if the rumors of an iPad version of Office is kooky or logical. Of course, if I ran Microsoft I'd have made Microsoft apps cross-platform eons ago, and that doesn't just mean supporting the Mac in a relatively minor way.
But I don't have the business or technical chops to run Microsoft -- I'm more qualified for the mailroom or coffee stand!
Not listening to me, Microsoft long ago decided to put 95 percent of its apps muscle behind Windows -- it's easier to support the one OS that it sells.
There is, however, money to be made on the hot Apple device (and Microsoft likes to make money), so a port does make economic sense. I'm not sure it is such an easy port, though. Office is awfully complex. It may be that Microsoft ports the stripped-down Web versions of Office to an iPad app, or just asks customers to run the apps from the cloud.
What is your best guess? Speculation welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 12/02/2011 at 1:18 PM