14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft this week introduced Office for iPad, and although many believe that Redmond is late to the party, the company still believes that the new version of its productivity suite will quickly gain in popularity in the App Store.
At the same time, Microsoft is also working to launch new Office versions for Android and Windows 8 Metro, both of which are expected to launch sometime this year.
In an interview with re/code, Qi Lu, executive vicepPresident at Microsoft, leading the company's work on the Bing search engine, Skype and Microsoft Office, explained that all these efforts are supposed to make Office “a habit” for everyone, no matter the device they are using.
“Anytime you are a student thinking about writing something, think about using Office to author documents. Anytime you see a rich document, you think Office,” he said.
Bringing Office on Apple’s very own playground was a priority, he suggested, especially because the company is working to bring its productivity suite on non-Windows platforms where it can still monetize the popularity of some of its flagship applications.
“How do we carry that into a fundamentally different environment from where we grew up with mice and keyboards? I can tell you that’s definitely not easy. There are so many different ways you can go,” Lu said.
Office for iPad obviously comes with cloud features and that’s exactly the kind of thing that could help the productivity suite quickly win users. Office for iPad allows users to save documents on their tablets, but also features OneDrive support, so storing files in the cloud and editing them in Office is a streamlined process.
“If you look at industry numbers, within the next 12 months or so around the world, over two billion people will be using cloud-connected mobile devices, whether phones or tablets. Those people may not necessarily have used Office before. We view that as a really good opportunity for Microsoft,” Lu pointed out.
Now that Office for iPad is already up for grabs, Microsoft can start focusing on something that could also spur the adoption of its Windows 8 modern operating system. Office Touch is also expected to launch this year to allow Windows 8 users to create and edit documents right in the Modern UI of their touch-capable devices, such as Surface RT tablets.
CEO Satya Nadella has already confirmed that such a project is coming, but no specifics have been provided on timing.