Earlier this morning, The Daily’s Peter Ha posted a picture of what looked like Microsoft’s Office running on Apple’s iPad. This immediately sparked the tech industry to go crazy, with several sites posting, a little pre-mature, that Microsoft’s Office would be coming to the iPad in just a “matter of weeks.” With Apple’s iPad now becoming the enterprise “golden child,” Microsoft stands to profit handsomely, if its Suite were on the iPad.
Within hours, Microsoft commented on the leaked image, denying it was real. But only hours later, they changed their tune, instead saying that The Daily had, as they put it, “bad info.” What exactly does that mean? It could mean that what we all saw was in fact, not real. It could also mean that perhaps the image leaked is from an old build and therefor is not the “real” Office which is being planned for release. As for Peter Ha, he claims that the image, nay, the app, was shown to him in person, by a Microsoft employee, on his [the employee's] own iPad.
In the end, we can’t imagine Microsoft not taking advantage of the iPad’s success, especially in a market like corporate enterprise, where they’ve held a tight grip for years. In fact, it’s hard to believe that the Office Suite hasn’t been release for the iPad already, especially with Apple’s iWorks already available. Either way, we expect to hear something official on this app sooner than later.
Source: Microsoft (Twitter), Peter Ha (Twitter) Via: The Verge