Rumors that Microsoft is working on an iOS-compatible version of its Office suite have been circling for some time, and the company has even said that some form of an iPhone and iPad flavor of Word, Powerpoint and Excel are coming. Now product manager Petr Bobek has added to that by stating an iOS-native version of Office 2013 will ship next year.
Office 2012 for the iPad coming next year
Mr. Bobek said that Office 2013 for iOS and Android will ship after March 2013, according to The Verge. Along with Web-based versions of the apps, platform-specific versions will be available for Windows, "Windows Phone, Windows RT, Mac OS, Android, iOS and Symbian."
Word, Excel and Powerpoint are standards in many workplaces, so bringing them to the iPad will help draw even more businesses into Apple's camp and will help Microsoft maintain its dominant position in the business app market.
Microsoft has already said that Office Mobile will be supported on iOS, Android and Windows smartphones, although the company hasn't said before now whether the app suite would be Web-based or platform-native.