[Waragainstsleep]

When? How much will it cost?

What the hell as taken them so long?

Will you buy it?

[Salty]

I won't buy it. My guess is they genuinely hope people won't start using iPads for Office work.

[iMOTOR]

I don't see a real future for office on desktop computers, much less mobile devices.

[Spheric Harlot]

They're in a bind.

If they do, they legitimize a platform they don't yet have an answer to.

But every day they don't, they're proving their own irrelevance and killing one of their two primary products.

[Waragainstsleep]

I feel the same way. Can they really still believe that iPad hasn't already gone far enough to be legitimate though? Its very popular in business already and getting more so every day. Where its making real inroads now though is schools. They are cheaper than laptops, less distracting, easier to lock down, more robust and reliable, require less maintenance and managementand can replace heavy and expensive textbooks.

If M$ doesn't put Office onto the iPad (and it will have to be reasonably priced for schools too, especially if they release it before Apple can set up volume licensing everywhere) then they are going to lose the biggest advantage that Office has. This is not that its a powerful tool as many will tell you, its that everyone is used to it because its what they learned in school.

[chris v]

Who needs it?

[Waragainstsleep]

It would help drive enterprise adoption a bit faster. Its happening anyway though.

[Spheric Harlot]

Who needs it?

Welp, that is exactly the question Microsoft have opened themselves up to.

Conventional wisdom before iPad has been: everybody.

[Eug]

Isn't this supposed to be a public poll? I don't see who voted.

EDIT:

Yes:

"Be advised that this is a public poll: other users can see the choice(s) you selected."

However, I can't see the results of the poll when logged in, and I can't see an option from the regular thread page to go to the Poll Results. However, I see that the Poll Results page does exist, and if I go directly there I can see the results.

http://forums.macnn.com/macnn-lounge-89/3564/a/

[Salty]

I actually wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft tries to leverage Office to push Windows 8 as the default tablet for big businesses. I can see a lot of lame ass IT people handing executives Windows 8 tablets and calling them iPads in the hopes that their bosses won't know the difference.