Not that long ago (when Microsoft was still hammer out the details of their Office 15 offering) there was a small stir on the internet about the possibility of Office for the iPad and for Android based tablets. At the time Microsoft completely denied the rumors and stated that they were not working on working on office for iPad and that the pictures floating around were faked.Now those rumors are popping up again but this time we have anew time frame. It seems that going rumor is that Microsoft will release these new applications around the same time that they are pushing out Windows 8 and Windows RT. Now if the timing seems rather odd then you are following the same thoughts that we are.
However after the initial thought of “Microsoft cannot be that stupid” I started to think about this a little more. Microsoft has said they are not developing an Office for the iPad or indeed any application version of office for anything other than Windows 8 and Windows RT (they have not even confirmed that they are working on anything for OSX). Now this could be very true when you look at the direction that Microsoft is moving in.
As we have told you (and shown you) Microsoft is pushing cloud services very very hard. They want you to use their servers instead of running everything on your own. We are beginning to think that Microsoft might not be developing a traditional app for use on iOS or Android, but a cloud based service that would work through their Office 360 platform (or an updated version of it). This would not only get more people running Office on different platforms, but Microsoft could require SkyDrive as well as other subscriptions for use.
This would mean a consistent revenue stream instead of the single purchase that they could get for the suite if they sold it outright. After all how many people are honestly going to pay $300 for an app when you can get another one for free on your tablet/phone or for $30-50 if you are thinking of spending money to get something a little better. Microsoft could conceivably offer the service at $15 per month and many would eat it up if they allowed the cloud service to run on multiple devices. You would have cross platform use at this point as well since you would simply connect into your SkyDrive and have your documents all in one place.
Although the thought of an “app” sounds nice we really do not see that as being likely (it still could happen though as Microsoft does not always do the smartest thing). Instead we expect them to continue to push for the cloud and to leverage services they already have in place instead of working to develop a new app for two competing platforms.
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