In a move that was both surprising, and in hindsight, inevitable, Microsoft has made their overwhelmingly popular Microsoft Office available for the iPad. The suite, which includes Word, Powerpoint, and Excel, is touch-optimized, and not just a sloppy port for the sake of having a native iOS version up.
“We thought a lot about what people want to do when they’re on their tablet, iPad functionality, and touch-first when we were building Office for iPad. We reimagined Office on the iPad, while retaining what people love about Office. We hope you’ll be as pleased with the results as we are. In the future, we will bring Office apps to the Windows Store and other popular platforms,” the official Microsoft Office blog said.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s new CEO, just about 50 days into the role, made the announcement that also had him announce the shift Microsoft wants to make, focusing primarily on mobile apps rather than the desktop environment.
Tim Cook and Nadella had a quick exchange on Twitter, with the Apple CEO sending a short welcome with the message “Welcome to the #iPad and @AppStore!” Nadella tweeted right back “Thanks @tim_cook, excited to bring the magic of @Office to iPad customers.”
This could be a very lucrative move for the Redmond company as more and more users switch to mobile devices to take care of both work and play.