By Microsoft has long been rumored to be bringing its Office suite to mobile, and we’ve been throwing as many dates as we can to see which one will stick to the wall. No amount of throwing will get us anywhere without official word from Microsoft, and with today’s news we have just that.
Product manager Peter Bobek has confirmed that Microsoft Office 2013 will be headed to mobile platforms starting next year. To be more specific, they say to expect the suite to rollout “from” March 2013. That verbiage suggests it’s possible not all platforms will get it at the same time, though that’s hardly anything concrete.
It’s said that the suite “will work across Windows Phone, Android, and iOS,” though we’re not sure if they mean they’ll all have the same features or if they’ll have some sort of synchronization or collaboration service.
Whatever the case may be, we couldn’t be happier to get the most complete suite of document editing tools in the game. Google Drive is great, of course, but there’s nothing like Microsoft Office in the flesh. We’ll be looking forward to it. [Ihned via The Verge]
woo! one step closer to leaving my laptop in the corner collecting dust :)
The good news is this means Google Drive will get some significant work done on it in the next 6 months.
Amen to that. Mobile drive is frankly atrocious
I’m really getting sick of not being able to tab easily.
So does this release mean companies like Documents to Go and Quick Office are done for? I guess it will depend on price.
I’m pretty sure MS is offering a slightly less feature loaded version for the Android and iOS systems as it did for the Mac version of office. MS wants to sell as many copies of office possible and it will not risk loosing the position it has with office of being the number one application in its segment. MS also wants to become the number one tablet and phone OS, which will hint that the Win version probably will be superior to the offerings on other platforms.
Update: https://twitter.com/fxshaw/status/256089501049450496
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
Failed Jedi Mind Trick by Micro$oft.
Prediction: it’ll cost $99 on Android
And it will be incredible bloatware. I want to see Libreoffice for mobile — but until then I’ll stick with Office Suite.
I’ve barely used M$ office for several years, Open/libre Office is used on Desktop and laptop (M$ only used when someone sends me docs using proprietary implementations that have yet to be reverse engineered).
M$ Office, like most M$ software is overpriced, annoying, buggy and far too closed.
This will be the same, I’ll be skipping!
hey error on page data won’t load
This is good new, I for one welcome this. Looks like I can finally read and type Microsoft word document on my phone (if this app is compatible with HTC Vivid).