Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently hinted at a version of Office for iPad and Android tablets. The hints came during a conference where Ballmer spoke in front of Wall Street analysts and investors.
Ballmer discussed porting products made by Microsoft to non Windows platforms, that sounds like the right direction for the company. The CEO didn’t refer to Office for iOS and Android exactly, but it was clear that this was the product he was referring to. Also, Google made available Quickoffice for Android and iOS for free today, in a move that would counter a Microsoft Office release for those platforms.
The MS official talked about products like Skype, SkyDrive and OneNote, already available on iOS and Android. Skype is actually a success story, being “as cross platform as could be”. Ballmer mentioned 4 areas in which Microsoft must deliver in the following years: Office 365, the Azure cloud platform, Windows PCs and smartphones and tablets. Getting Office on all tablets out there sounds like a start… Hopefully the price won’t be too high or who knows, the app may end up being free.
