The Tech Bet

Microsoft Office for iPad: 4 years late

Microsoft gets down to business with Office for iPad
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Microsoft gets down to business with Office for iPad

Microsoft unveiled its new Microsoft Office suite for the iPad, a move much anticipated by business customers as workers increasingly bring in their own mobile devices to use at work.

As of Thursday, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint are available in Apple's iTunes store.

Microsoft unveiled Office for the iPad, a software suite that includes programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and works on rival Apple's hugely popular tablet computer.
AP

"The vision is pretty straightforward: It is to make sure that the 1 billion Office users and growing can have access to the high-fidelity Office experience on every device they love to use," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a press event.

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"It's about time. What were they waiting for? I mean, the iPad came out in 2010. It's been four years," noted Jefferson Graham, technology reporter at USA Today, who said Microsoft had been losing out on substantial revenue by not having a version of Office for the iPad earlier.

"It was dumb not to make it available when free or almost-free alternatives like Google Docs and Apple's Pages and Numbers were available," Graham added.

Thursday's press event was Nadella's first major event since being named Microsoft's CEO in February, and investors are likely thrilled to have someone new in charge, Graham said.

Even if Nadella's business strategies win the favor of investors, Graham said, "he's got to convince people that he can come up with a Windows program that people will want."