No MS Office For iPad Says Microsoft

All you productivity junkies who were hoping to get Word on your iPad take a knee and gather ’round. It’s not going to happen.

When Apple introduced the iPad, a large part of their demonstration was of new versions of their productivity suit, iWork, for the iPad. Three applications were redesigned, and priced at $10 a piece. Applause all around from the Mac fans, but what about us PC dorks?

Problem is, everyone who does not use a Mac, and many who do, do not use iWork. In fact, most of us never have. We however have been waiting for some indication from Microsoft that Office was going to make its way over to touch-screen heaven. Alas, no.

Now, Microsoft is working on web-based version of some applications that are part of Office, but that will not be ready for several months. And, if they use Flash elements the iPad won’t be able to run them anyway, mitigating their usefulness in this discussion.

What it boils down to is this: if you need to have medium powered, non cloud-based productivity applications on your iPad, get used to iWork. People who use OS X seem to like it, so the rest of us can become accustomed as well.

Not to sound alarmist, but given the emphasis that iWork got at launch, is anyone else wondering if Apple told Microsoft to take a hike and stay clear of the iPad?