14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will hold a new press conference in San Francisco tomorrow, with the new CEO Satya Nadella expected to make his first public appearance as company boss during the event.
Focused on what Microsoft is calling “the intersection of cloud and mobile computing,” the press conference is also expected to witness the introduction of Office for iPad, a new version of Microsoft’s productivity platform specifically developed to work on Apple tablets.
At this point, Microsoft is keeping all details on Office for iPad completely secret, but according to people close to the development plans, the software giant is planning to make the product available with an Office 365 subscription which would allow them to edit and create documents straight on their tablets.
According to some previous reports, Microsoft could be calling Office for iPad “Miramar,” even though the company is yet to confirm such a designation for the product.
At the same time, Redmond is also working on what’s reportedly being called Office Gemini, a new generation of Office versions that could see daylight sometime this year and in early 2015.
Microsoft is trying to monetize the popularity of Office by launching the app on more platforms, so the iPad version pretty much makes sense in such a context. What’s more, a Windows 8 version of the productivity suite is also being prepared, which would basically mean that Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the other tools would be available right in the Metro UI.
This allows users to edit documents using touch support on both desktop computers and tablets, without the need for accessing the desktop and connecting a keyboard.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO who was replaced at the helm of the company by Satya Nadella in February, said at the Gartner Symposium ITXpo in Orlando, Fla. In 2013 that Office for iPad would only arrive after the debut of the touch-optimized build for Windows 8 users, but it turns out that the company has changed its plans lately.
If Office for iPad launches tomorrow, Office for Windows 8 would clearly have to wait a few more months, but people close to the matter guarantee that this particular build of the productivity suite would see daylight sometime this year.
Overall, there’s no doubt that Microsoft is striving to make the most of the Office suite and with fiercer competition coming from free productivity solutions, it’s pretty clear that the company needs to act very fast to make sure that it remains the leader of this side of the industry.