Skip to footer

Microsoft Word on the iPad? Not so fast, Ballmer says

Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer downplays the imminent arrival of iOS-compatible Office software. 

|
Reuters
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks in front of Microsoft products at the Qualcomm pre-show keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in this January 7, 2013, file photo.
  • By Matthew Shaer

One of the great drawbacks to being an iPad user is the lack of a good word processing app in the Apple ecosystem. (Emphasis here on good: although there are a scattering of word processing apps available for the iPad, most of them fall somewhere between middling to just plain poor.) Which is why back in November, we got so excited about the prospect that Microsoft would finally release an iOS version of Office. 

And it's why we're so disappointed that the whole thing now looks increasing far-off. Speaking this week to Businessweek, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, expressed happiness with the status quo: Office for PCs and Macs, but not for Apple iPads and iPhones. 

"I have nothing to say on that topic. We’re very glad with the product, very happy with the product that we’re putting in market," Ballmer said. "It makes sense on the devices like the Mac and the PC. We have a product that we think makes a lot of sense. We do have a way for people always to get to Office through the browser, which is very important. And we’ll see what we see in the future." 

So yes, not quite an out-and-out denial, but clearly an endorsement of the status quo. (It's worth noting that with the subscription-based Office 365, you could technically access Office through the Safari browser on your iPad. But the user experience may not be as good as it would be in a dedicated app.) 

For Microsoft, the strategy may make sense in the short term. Office currently serves as an incentive for consumers choosing between tablets – if you buy a Microsoft Surface, you can get Office, too. If you buy an Apple iPad, you can't. 

A second reason, according to Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet: Microsoft's "unfamiliarity" with the app market as envisioned by Apple.

"Microsoft is comfortable with pushing out with a new version of Office every few years, having it replace the older version," Kingsley-Hughes writes. "But this is not how apps work, and buyers -- consumers and enterprise alike -- like the new model of buying an app once and then receiving a continuous trickle of free updates over time. Embracing apps would mean embracing a new way of doing business. This is why we don't have the Office suite on our iPads." 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter: @CSMHorizonsBlog

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Microsoft Word on the iPad? Not so fast, Ballmer says
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0130/Microsoft-Word-on-the-iPad-Not-so-fast-Ballmer-says
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe