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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Earlier today, a report from The Daily claimed that Microsoft has a "working prototype" of its Office suite for iPad, with the app reportedly set to be submitted to Apple for App Store approval "soon".

022112-tech-apps-office-ss-500x323.jpg

The New York Times now reports that Microsoft has issued a statement denying at least some of the claims made in the original report, although the company offered no detail on what specific claims it was objecting to.
A Microsoft spokeswoman issued this statement: "The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment."
Following the introduction of the original iPad back in 2010, Microsoft indicated that it was "looking at", the possibility of bringing Office to the device, but by the time the device launched a few months later the company said it had "no current plans" for such a project. Rumors of Office for iPad were revived by The Daily late last year with claims that Microsoft was "actively working" on an app.

Update: Microsoft has also responded to ZDNet, claiming that the screenshot accompanying The Daily's report is "not a real picture of a Microsoft software product".
A Microsoft spokesperson said the screen shot accompanying The Daily's story is not a real picture of a Microsoft software product. But the spokesperson also said Microsoft is declining to comment as to whether or not the company has developed a version of Office for the iPad and/or when such a product may come to market.
Update 2: The Daily's Peter Ha has taken to Twitter to defend the original report, saying that "a working version of the app was demoed to us by someone at Microsoft."

peter_ha_daily_office_ipad.png

Update 3: TechCrunch has also weighed in, offering another statement from Ha and its own confirmation that the project is indeed real.
Sure enough, they did their homework and Ha stands by the story and pic.

"We've been chasing this story down for weeks. We did not fabricate the image and Microsoft isn't denying the existence of Office for iPad. All this fuss over a photo is nonsense. The story is real."

We also got confirmation from local sources in Seattle, who assure us that the software is real and being developed in-house. However, as the build in the picture is far from final, Microsoft can deny (in its overly specific way) that it's not a real product.
Update 4: Microsoft's official Microsoft News account on Twitter has weighed in promising that the situation will become clear in the "coming weeks".
Great respect for The Daily but regrettably someone is giving them bad info, and that'll be clear in the "coming weeks."

Article Link: Microsoft Denies Claims of Imminent Launch of Office for iPad [Updated x4]
 

*LTD*

macrumors G4
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
Best not to deny it. Unless MS isn't interested in staying relevant (which is increasingly a problem for them these days.)
 

Menopause

macrumors 6502a
Feb 26, 2011
663
1,807
WHO gives a damn LOL, it's from Microsoft! They probably just took a year to copy Apple's iWork suite for the iPad and still did a hideous job out of it. Anyone seen the UI of the latest iteration of Office for Mac?

office11.002.png
 
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seamer

macrumors 6502
Jul 24, 2009
426
164
"Some of it's not true." "Which parts?" "No comment."

It's clear to see that they don't have any plans of launching their biggest product onto the device with the largest momentum. Nope, not them.
 

FrizzleFryBen

macrumors 6502
Dec 14, 2009
453
179
Charlotte, NC
I have had office for Mac on 4 different Macs over the years and it takes forever to open, crashes all the time and I get a pinwheel for 20 seconds anytime I try to change a font. Microsoft just doesn't do well developing on platforms other than Windows.

Oh oh, and every time I plug my Air into my thunderbolt display every excel window I have open goes full screen no matter how much data it contains...super annoying. Ok now I'm just complaining. ;)
 

jackc

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2003
1,490
0
If I could just get the hang of Numbers, I would abandon Excel in a heartbeat.

Excel is fine, but I wouldn't mind migrating to Numbers if there is ever a serious update to it. Right now it cannot handle large spreadsheets, aside from any missing features.
 

Alexs45

macrumors member
Jan 14, 2005
52
1
Do you think that Apple was going to announce MS Office on March 7 along with the iPad 3?

Definitely would have caused some stir.
 

Voxone

macrumors member
Feb 14, 2012
47
0
San Francisco Bay Area
Too big, too late? Why, oh why, would I want to clog up my iPad with Office? I've got Pages and Numbers and don't really need anything else. And how much is this little bundle going to cost? I'm betting its not going to be cheap.
 

r.j.s

Moderator emeritus
Mar 7, 2007
15,026
52
Texas
Damn, I was looking forward to actually having Office on my iPad. I use QuickOffice now, but the formatting is usually a little messed up.

If only I could get the other people I work with off of Office.
 

Renzatic

Suspended
Rumor: Office for iPad release imminent.

Holy crap! I can't wait! Office is so awesome! Having it on the iPad just makes it that much moreso!

Confirmation: Office release not anywhere near imminent.

Who cares! No one likes Office anyway. It's a bloated piece of Microsoft junk, which is a company that's gonna be dead in, like, two years. They probably just copied iWork for the iPad anyway!

SOUR GRAPES
 

lilo777

macrumors 603
Nov 25, 2009
5,144
0
I have had office for Mac on 4 different Macs over the years and it takes forever to open, crashes all the time and I get a pinwheel for 20 seconds anytime I try to change a font. Microsoft just doesn't do well developing on platforms other than Windows.

Oh oh, and every time I plug my Air into my thunderbolt display every excel window I have open goes full screen no matter how much data it contains...super annoying. Ok now I'm just complaining. ;)

How do you like iTunes on Windows?
 

Drunken Master

macrumors 65816
Jul 19, 2011
1,060
0
If I could just get the hang of Numbers, I would abandon Excel in a heartbeat.

Dunno, I've heard that Excel has more functions and meat to it than Numbers, but I don't use spreadsheets for work, thank God.

I prefer Pages over Word, I'll say that much.
 

coder12

macrumors 6502a
Jun 28, 2010
512
3
WHO gives a damn LOL, it's from Microsoft! They probably just took a year to copy Apple's iWork suite for the iPad and still did a hideous job out of it. Anyone seen the UI of the latest iteration of Office for Mac?

Image

As someone who would love to use an iPad for a class that requires the craptastic office suite (Specifically a Computer Science class that teaches specific functions of Office-only features), this would be nice.

For work professionally, naaahhh. :p
 

Eidorian

macrumors Penryn
Mar 23, 2005
29,190
386
Indianapolis
It would not be that hard to take a screen shot of Office 15 and just full screen it when presenting it on the iPad. Such is life.
 
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