{"id":11646,"date":"2012-01-24T18:45:07","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T23:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/?p=11646"},"modified":"2022-12-22T08:15:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T13:15:51","slug":"tablet-info-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/tablet-info-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Tablet Info"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tablet PC has long been a pet project for Microsoft<\/a> founder Bill Gates<\/a>, who showed the first Tablet PC prototype in 2000 at Comdex<\/a>. Mr. Gates<\/a> described the device, which featured input via stylus only, as an evolutionary step in PC functionality and usability. For the next ten years leading up to CEO Steve Ballmer<\/a>‘s introduction of the new “slates”, which support Windows 7 touchscreen features, the company has tried to make the Tablet catch on but with little success according<\/a> to PCWorld<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

MSFT Office Coming To iPad Next Year – Report<\/a><\/h3>\n

\"Microsoft<\/a>Microsoft may be bringing Office to the iPad<\/a> next year, according to a report in The Daily<\/em>. The report cites unnamed sources and says that Microsoft<\/a> (MSFT<\/a>) will also update its version of Office for the Mac next year.<\/p>\n

On a business level, it might make sense the Apple<\/a> (AAPL<\/a>) iPad is making inroads into the enterprise, and having some sort of Office client available for it would let Microsoft earn at least some money from these Apple invaders. It would also help make sure that Office 365<\/a> the company’s cloud-based business services would work on the iPad according<\/a> to the BusinessInsider<\/em><\/a>,<\/p>\n

Microsoft<\/a> might even do this at the risk of driving some enterprise customers to stick with iPads instead of adopting Windows 8<\/a> tablets. After all, Office and related back-end products have been driving Microsoft’s growth for the last year, while Windows sales have been pretty stagnant (I wrote about Office’s profitability here<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n

The BusinessInsider<\/em> points out that Microsoft has NEVER released Office for the Mac<\/a> in the same year (or before) Office for Windows. Microsoft is building Office 15 for Windows. It’s going to be a ton of work to revamp it to work with the Windows 8 tablet interface, or risk having it relegated to traditional PCs only (and having one less reason for customers to choose Windows 8 tablets). The Mac version of Office almost always comes a year after the Windows version. It COULD be different this time, but that would require a diversion of resources to a minority platform (the Mac still has less than 5% market share for personal computers).<\/p>\n

Microsoft said through a spokesperson: “We already deliver Office on multiple platforms and devices and are committed to expanding in the future, but have nothing further to share today.”<\/p>\n

BI<\/em> says that expanding Office to the iPad is not crazy.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h6>\n