According to The Daily, iPad users may soon be able to buy and install Microsoft’s popular Office suite on their tablets, as the Redmond based giant is rumoured to be readying an iPad compatible version. This doesn’t really come as a huge surprise, since Microsoft has been making its business-focused Office software available for the Apple Mac platform for several years.  

It would also make sense; since its launch, the iPad has been making inroads into businesses and enterprises alike, with users desiring to use their tablet for work as well as recreation.

The real surprise though is that such a move could well make the iPad a stronger competitor for the enterprise market (typically Microsoft’s hunting grounds), considering that Microsoft is said to be launching its own Windows 8 tablets next year.

While iPad users can already access Office online via Office 360, which was made available locally for trial purposes this week, a dedicated app would cater to being able to perform typical office functions (creating and editing Word documents and Excel documents as well as PowerPoint presentations) when offline as well.

The Daily points out that the pricing for an office app appears likely to be in the $10 (R80) range, which is in keeping with Apple’s own Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps. This is significantly lower than the price demanded for the Windows versions of Office 2010 – with Office 2010 Home and Business editions carrying a R1800 price tag while Office Pro 2010 costs a cool R4800.

According to The Daily, a newer edition of Office is expected for OS X Lion sometime next year, to replace the current Office 2011, which offers support for Mac OS iterations up to Snow Leapard.

 

With the recent announcement of Office 360 in SA, Microsoft seems determined to re-establish or reaffirm itself as the office king, while more directly competing with Google’s own cloud based Docs features.