Microsoft is expected to launch the official Office suite for the Apple iPad in the very near future, and pictures of the app in question running on an iPad have leaked online as proof.
We heard rumours not too long ago that Microsoft were planning to finally bring its Office productivity suite to the Apple tablet, and now things are starting to hot up. The Daily’s Matt Hickey managed to score some hands-on time with the app, thus proving its authenticity and also giving us a sneak peek at it in action.
Interestingly, the app is said to feature the new Metro theme that Microsoft has used on its Windows Phone platform, and will use with Windows 8. This just goes to show the direction Microsoft is heading in, in an attempt to simplify its user interface and make sure customers experience a familiarity across the board of its products – be it desktop, mobile, gaming or software.
The working prototype of Office for iPad that was viewed by The Daily showed support for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but nothing else. It hasn’t yet been confirmed if the app will provide support for any of Microsoft’s other Office programs, such as Outlook or Publisher.
The Daily’s anonymous sources also confirmed that Microsoft would be sending the app to Apple for testing and approving for the App Store. Provided everything meets Apple’s strict requirements, the app could be available to download within 3-4 weeks.
We’re also hearing that Microsoft has plans to update the existing OneNote app for iPad to give it the Metro makeover.
At the moment everyone is in the dark about the pricing of Office for iPad. We’d hazard a guess at £9.99, but we could be wrong, of course. How much would you pay to get an official Microsoft Office suite on your iPad?
UPDATE: Microsoft has shot The Daily down, posting this message via it’s Twitter News page, @MSFTnews:
“Great respect for The Daily but regrettably someone is giving them bad info, and that’ll be clear in the ‘coming weeks’.”
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Source: The Daily