iPad users may get MS Office in 1st half of 2014

Users of Apple's iPad tablet can expect to get much more productive as Microsoft continues work on a version of its Office productivity suite for it.

The Microsoft Office for iPad suite, presently codenamed Miramar, may even come ahead of Microsoft's touch-first Office version for Windows, ZDNet reported.

"Microsoft officials have acknowledged, in a somewhat roundabout way, that it exists and is coming. Last we heard, it sounded from the words of ex-CEO Steve Ballmer that it was going to arrive some time after Microsoft's own touch-first, 'Gemini' implementation of Office. Gemini is Microsoft's Metro-Style/Windows Store versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote," ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reported.

She cited information indicating Office for iPad may come in the first half of 2014.

Foley added Ballmer approved a suggestion by the Office team that they would bring Office for iPad to market once it is ready, even if it is before the Windows 8 version.

But she said Office for iPad could require a subscription for Office 365, adding it could be corporate or Home Premium.

"The Office 365 tie-in isn't hard to imagine, given Microsoft has made Office Mobile available for iPhones and Android phones, with an Office 365 subscription requirement," she said.

Source: GMA News