Why would Microsoft make Office for iPad, and why would Apple want it?

There's been a bit of a brouhaha this week over the possibility of Microsoft Office coming to the iPad. It's been teased, denied, rumored for a keynote spot at the anticipated iPad 3 event, summarily dismissed and otherwise masterfully debated everywhere from blogs to social streams and back.

But does it even matter? Is it merely the significance and symbolism of the idea itself -- having Office on iPad -- that's important, or is anyone actually expecting killer software when years of Office on Mac still haven't provided a truly excellent, fully compatible experience?

Why would Microsoft make Office for iPad?

Microsoft is getting ready to finally ship their iPad competitor -- Windows 8 on tablets

While education has always been a stronghold of Apple's, and according to their Q1 2012 conference call, almost the entire Fortune 500 is testing or deploying iPads, for everyone from students to enterprise, having a real, compatible Microsoft Office suite on Windows 8 Tablets could very well sway consumer dollars in Microsoft's direction.

Why then would Microsoft want to release Office for iPad -- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint -- when making Office an exclusive for their upcoming Windows 8 tablets would boost Microsoft's own platform and give it a fighting chance against the Apple incumbent?

Because Microsoft is a software licensing company. It's what they do. Sure, they talk a good platform game, and they've succeeded in building platforms, but at their core they're the guys who licensed DOS and BASIC to the world.

Take Exchange ActiveSync as precedent. Exchange was Microsoft's attempt to displace BlackBerry from the enterprise. It was the crown jewel of Windows Mobile, the predecessor of Windows Phone. And Microsoft gave it to Apple, Google, and others.

They hurt -- badly hurt -- Windows Mobile to help -- really help -- Exchange ActiveSync. They chose software licensing over platform success. They chose beating BlackBerry over helping Apple and Google.

There are hundreds of millions of iOS devices on the market. The revenue that could be realized by selling Microsoft Office licenses at $30 a pop (assuming a price similar to what Apple charges for the full iWork suite) to those hundreds of millions of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users is compelling. Even if Microsoft begins solely with an iPad version of Office -- as Apple did with iWork -- tens of millions of licenses is nothing to sneeze at, not even for Microsoft. It might even make up for a lot of ~$15 Windows 8 Tablet licenses Office on iPad costs them. Software licensing over platform success.

And hey, if Office on iPad helps Microsoft compete against Google Docs, all the better.

Office on iPad could also be similar to Office on Mac -- a second class experience that leads users, and enterprise, dependent on Microsoft's software to switch over to Microsoft platform to get done what they desperately need to get done.

Of course, Microsoft doesn't make Halo for the PlayStation 3, so it's possible Office for tablets will be considered in the same way, but if iPads are really the mainstream consumer computing appliance of the future, Microsoft will want their software, and revenue stream, to be on it.

Why would Apple want Office on iPad?

Apple already offers iWork for iPad -- Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheets, and Keynote presentations

Microsoft owned, utterly and completely owned, the last wave of personal computing from the operating system that still runs 9 out of 10 PCs to the Office software the powers a massive percentage of work and home productivity alike. Having Office on iPad could pull people away from Apple's existing iWork software and take money from their pockets.

Why then would Apple want Office released on iPad when it would eclipse Apple's own iWork suite -- Pages, Keynote, and Numbers -- with a far more established, more functional competitor on Apple's own platform?

Because Apple is a hardware company. It's what they want. They make razors and rely on compelling but convenient and commoditize razorblades to increase the attractiveness of their products. They're the guys who give iOS away for free and run iTunes and the App Store at just above cost.

Take Office on Mac as a precedent. Office on Mac mattered so much that, upon his return to Apple, Steve Jobs let Bill Gates dwarf him on the keynote stage to announce the deal that would keep Office on the Mac for years to come. It didn't matter that then, like now, Office on Mac wasn't great software (consider iTunes on Windows revenge) it only mattered that it was Office and it was on the Mac. It was good enough for most of the people most of the time. It checked a box and removed a barrier to purchase.

The same holds true for Office on iPad. There is a segment of the market, consumer and enterprise, who simply won't buy or use something that doesn't run Office. Put Office on it and that box gets checked, that barrier to purchase gets busted down.

Does any of that matter?

The Daily claims Office for iPad is ready to go but Microsoft says it's not so

If Microsoft can work a Windows 7-class miracle and make a fantastic multitouch version of Office, then absolutely it matters. It'd be a fantastic win for everyone. Microsoft's reputation for tablet software would grow, which would encourage consumers to give Microsoft's other offerings, including their platform, a chance. Apple would get more killer software to help them sell more iPads. And customers would get a really great Office suite to work with.

If Office is as middling as it is on Mac, Microsoft's reputation for poor off-platform software will persist, but Apple will still get a massive name on the App Store, and customers will get an app that may frustrate them but will still be familiar and somewhat comforting.

That's assuming Microsoft is even making Office for iPad.

The symmetry of an Office for iPad announcement at the iPad 3 event makes for compelling conjecture.

The last time Microsoft appeared on an Apple stage it was to rescue Apple from near bankruptcy and pledge Office to Apple's user base to mitigate Microsoft's anti-trust concerns. If Microsoft appears again, it would be to acknowledge Apple's unprecedented success in consumer electronics and offer Office to Apple's massive user base.

If it doesn't happen during the iPad 3 event, it could still happen by way of press release and sudden appearance on the App Store. I don't have any specific information one way or another, my guess is it will happen.

Microsoft is a software licensing company. Apple is a hardware company. It's what they do. It's what they want.

Feels like it's just a matter of time.

Update: Guy English has a smart take, and killer closing, on this as well on Kicking Bear

The Daily claimed to have an exclusive story on the upcoming availability of Microsoft Office for iPad earlier today, unfortunately  the story appears to be highly inaccurate and misleading; according to Microsoft. The Daily claimed that it had inside information that told them that Office for iPad was complete and ready to be submitted to Apple for approval. Even more convincing was a picture of Office running on an iPad; along with the claim that The Daily had some hands on time with the app. Unfortunately Microsoft has issued a statement calling out The Daily.

“The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment.” She added that an image with The Daily’s article depicting an Office product for iPad was not from Microsoft. ”The screenshot is not Microsoft’s software,” she said.

Source: The New York Times

Back in November, The Daily claimed that Microsoft was working on a version of its hugely popular “Office” application for the iPad.  It has now followed up its original story with a picture of Office running on the iPad and the notion that it is now complete and very close to being submitted to Apple for approval. The Daily even managed to grab some hands-on time with a working prototype of the Office application.

A brief hands-on with a working prototype of the software revealed a number of new things. The app’s user interface is similar to the current OneNote app, but it has hints of Metro, the new design language that can be seen in Windows Phone and in the as-yet-released Windows 8 desktop operating system. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited locally and online. But it’s unclear if Microsoft will support other Office apps at launch or at all.

Source: The Daily

OnLive, better known for its online gaming service has just announced that it will be launching a cloud based Windows 7 experience for iPad users. The OnLive Desktop app will give users access to a Windows desktop experience without the need for any VNC or remote desktop connections. It is all stored in the cloud and accessible from your iPad or a desktop machine.

OnLive has just re-imagined what’s possible on iPad with the OnLive Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes App Store. Launching a brand-new chapter for OnLive (and everyone), OnLive Desktop gives users instant access to a seamless Windows desktop experience, with full-featured Microsoft Office applications and 2 GB of free cloud storage for secure file access anywhere. Need to edit a Word doc with redlines and comments? No problem. Need to give some oomph to that PowerPoint deck for your meeting? Go for it: present animations and slide transitions, edit diagrams and embed videos. Desperate for a pivot table in Excel? Pivot away … Anything you can do on your office desktop, you will be able to do on your iPad—at home, in your hotel, anywhere.

OnLive also plan on offering some more advanced versions of the app too. OnLive Desktop Pro will offer up to 50GB of storage, priority access to apps, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing and additional PC applications for a subscription of $9.99 a month. OnLive Enterprise will allow complete customization for business and organizations and OnLive collaborative services will offer thousands of users to simultaneously view, control and discuss a shared desktop via voice chat.

Source: OnLive

CloudOn, a free iPad app that offered Microsoft Office functionality with Dropbox support, appeared briefly in the App Store yesterday before going up in a puff of smoke a short time later.

CloudOn has responded saying their app has "sold out", but we think this may have had something to do with server overload.

Thanks for your support of CloudOn! We're currently sold out. We look forward to the feedback we will receive as we continue to support the many users that have registered in this first phase.

The fact that CloudOn came with full Dropbox support for storing and managing office files on-the-go was a great idea for power users, and the overall offering is unique in respect to beating Microsoft to the punch at their own game. This could be another reason the app is no longer available, as Microsoft could have called shenanigans if CloudOn didn't go through the appropriate channels before release.

I gave it a quick whirl when it was actually up and running, and noticed the app was somewhat sluggish from the get-go (probably due to how much it relies on the cloud backend to get things done paired with the influx of users hammering their servers).

We'll let you know as soon as CloudOn is back in the App Store. In the meantime, here's its description:

• Use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your iPad to create or edit documents.
• Rename, delete and manage documents with your Dropbox account
• Display, edit or create charts, change formatting, spell check, insert comments, into any Word, Excel or PowerPoint files
• Track changes while reviewing Word documents
• Use pivot tables and insert formulas in Excel workbooks
• Display and edit animation or transitions in PowerPoint presentations
• Present in full PowerPoint mode (not in PDF)
• Open files directly from your iPad email accounts or Dropbox account
• Automatically save documents to avoid losing changes

Source: CloudOn

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

With typical cat-like speed and agility, rumor has it Microsoft's Office team might finally be ready to pounce on something iOS -- namely the iPad. Quoth The Daily:

According to sources, the tech giant is actively working on adapting its popular software suite for Apple’s tablet. [...] It’s assumed that both of these would work with Office 365 as well as mobile versions, such as Windows Phone’s Office Hub. Because it would be compatible with these full suites rather than as stand-alone apps, the pricing will most likely be significantly lower than existing Office products. In fact, it’s likely the cost will be around the $10 price point that Apple has established for its Pages, Numbers and Keynote products.

No word yet on timeline. Would Microsoft really launch Office for iPad before giving Windows 8 Metro slates a chance to compete using Office exclusivity as a draw? Maybe. They did license away ActiveSync after all.

Source: The Daily

When it comes to document editing and creation on the iPad, two solutions really stand out: Apple's iWork Suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) and DataViz's Documents to Go app. Which is better? Well, I wish the decision was that easy.

Both apps (or set of apps in iWork's case -- you can buy each separately) allow you to edit and create documents, spreadsheets and presentations. iWork also has the advantage of using Apple's iWork format and Office format as well and is beautifully designed. Documents to Go does a stellar job of rendering and editing Microsoft's Office format. Let's begin by looking at each app a little more in-depth. I will focus primarily on the differences of how each application handles their word processing since this is the number one reason people would use these apps and, you probably don't want a mini-novel to read. There is an incredible amount to discuss with both iWork and Documents to Go, I cannot conceivably cover it all here. My goal is to give you a detailed enough overview to help you decided which app will work best for you.

iWork

Apple sells the iWork Suite of applications for $9.99 each. The individual apps are Pages (word processor), Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentations). Pages looks amazing. Just the aesthetic alone let's you know this isn't "baby software", but the real deal. When you start off by creating a new document, you are presented with several beautiful templates to get you started. For our purposes, we will look at a standard blank document. You have a standard document toolbar at the top of the screen. The Body button gives you a good set of default styles. To the right you have the traditional Bold, Italics and Underline buttons. Finally you have a tab-like icon that gives you the ability to enter a tab, line break, column or page break. Wow, that is some serious stuff there.

On the top of the screen you have an "i" button. This allows you to define a style, lists and indents, text alignment and line spacing. To the right is the picture icon that inserts pictures, tables, charts and shapes. Finally you have the wrench icon that essentially has your settings for Pages; Find, margins, watermarks and more can be found here.

Once you begin typing, you have a very familiar experience, it's just like a desktop whether you have been using a Mac or a PC. Use the tab button to quickly indent. Use the ruler to adjust alignments or place tab stops. Regardless, the interface is simple yet powerful. Do you have a multiple page document? A new innovative feature uses the ability to tap and hold in the right margin. This will bring up a magnifying glass that shows you a thumbnail preview of your page. Drag your finger down and it will preview the other pages in your document. Release on the desired page and Pages will instantly open the previewed page for you; no clumsy flicking or endless scrolling needed.

When your document is done, you can email it, share via iWork.com, send it to iTunes, copy it to iDisk or copy it to WebDav. The most popular method is to email. It is important to note that Pages creates your document in the .pages format which is not compatible with any other word processing application other than iWork for Mac. So, when you email your document, you are given three choices: send it as a Pages, PDF or .Doc format. The .doc option is compatible with PCs and PDF is comparable with just about any computer platform, but is not natively editable. If you send in Pages and PDF formats you will be quite pleased with the results. If you create a complex document with graphics, columns, , etc. and send via .doc format, your results may differ. I typically only create boring APA (American Psychological Association) formatted documents, and when sent via .doc format, they render beautifully. The same goes with importing a document, from say, from email. Though Pages does a really good job of opening and editing .doc documents, it is not flawless and some formatting loss can happen. Apple has improved this process with each update, but it is still not perfect. However, this is one of Pages strong points, it actually supports more than one format. You can also easily upload and download documents from the "cloud" via the iDisk and WebDav options.

At the end of the day, iWork gives you a beautiful robust set of tools for not only word processing but for spreadsheet calculations and creating presentations as well. Many of the same features carry over such as sending in Microsoft-friendly formats and access your files from the cloud. Though these apps are not perfect, they offer advanced features, many of which have only been available on desktop applications, until now.

[Pages - $9.99 - iTunes link]

[Numbers - $9.99 - iTunes link]

[Keynote - $9.99 - iTunes link]

Documents to Go

I have used Documents to Go (Docs to Go) for years, ever since the Palm V days of old. These guys have been at it for a while and I was expecting big things from them on the iPad and for the most part, Docs to Go doesn't disappoint. Docs to Go is a single app that supports a wide array of files for viewing and Office files for editing and sells for $16.99 or $9.99 in the App Store. The launch screen is divided into several sections; Local files, Desktop files, Online files, Recents, Search and Settings. Yes, Docs to Go has a very robust means to access your files and search them.

Once you open a file in the Word app, one feature I noticed immediately that I really liked is the ability to pinch and zoom the text to the appropritea size. The text wraps around in real-time which is cool. After deciding on the fone size you like, It's off to write your text. You have the typical fanfare as iWork does with text formats, colors, paragraph alingments, etc. Docs to Go does not support more advanced features in it's word processing app like real-time image arrangement as iWork does, but it gets the besics done well and cleanly. Two quibbles that I have is that Docs to Go was not developed with the iPad in mind, it is basically a big iPhone app, which is such a shame. Menus are designed for the iPhone, not the iPad. What do I mean? A good example is the placement of the formating buttons; they are along the bottom of the app. At first that may not sound like a bad idea, however, when you are typing, the keyboard appears and hides the buttons so you can't format while you time. Is it a deal breaker? No, but annoying none-the-less.

For me, where Docs to Go really shines over the competition is its "Intact" technology. At work, I use Microsoft Word to create my documents. Admittedly, I sometimes use fancy formats, tables, images, etc. As I mentioned earlier, these may not render very well in Pages. With Docs to Go however, if the app doesn't know what the object is on the document, it doesn't even try to render it, instead it gives you a "?" placeholder that tells you "if you delete me, you will lose this feature when you sync back your document". What a life saver! You can edit a document and not have to worry about loosing formating any more.

Other benefits of Docs to Go include the fact that it is a universal binary, so buy it once and you can use on the iPhone and iPad, not a bad deal at al. You can also sync via iTunes Sharing and Docs to Go's own Wi-Fi sharing app for PC and Mac.

[Documents to Go Premium - $16.99 - iTunes link]

[Documents to Go - $9.99 - iTunes link

Conclusion

You can also find previous reviews of these apps, Here for Pages and Here for Docs to Go.

Despite hundreds of thousands of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps in the App Store, there are still some huge gaps, and major apps missing from the big players, including Apple themselves, Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and BlackBerry maker RIM. Some of the best known software on the market simply isn't available for iOS. We're hoping that changes in 2011, and after the break are the apps we're hoping help make the change!

Apple: Files

I wrote at length about the need for a Finder app and amended it to a Files app in 2010 and now, at the beginning of 2011, it still tops my list for new iPhone and iPad apps I want from Apple. The reason is simple: document access on iOS as it currently stands is a nightmare. Apple's own iDisk and third parties like DropBox and Box.net offer functionality that really should be native and as off-line as it is on. Again, the Photo app is the model. It preserves the sandbox by providing a central repository for files, and allows them to easily be opened via the Picker in any other app. What Photos does or images and video, Files should do for documents (and both should do via Safari so we can upload to the web, just saying...). Apple, make it happen.

Also want:

• iWork for iPhone. We have it for iPad, we've seen it teased for iPhone, it can't possibly not be released in 2011.
• iPhoto for iOS. Create albums, move photos between them, do basic editing like crop and red-eye removal, and sync selected photos. We got iMovie for iPhone (and hopefully for iPad 2 soon), give us iPhoto.

Adobe: Flash Player

For years people have been angry at Apple for the lack of Flash support. And that's ridiculous. It's entirely Adobe's fault for coasting on shoddy code for the last five years and only delivering a workable mobile Flash, in beta, near the end of 2010. But deliver it they have. It's not great; I've disabled it on my Nexus One, but Adobe is working on it fearfully hard, and Google and Palm and RIM have chosen to support it (and in so doing slowed the switch to HTML 5. Jerks.), so it'll get good enough. I don't think Apple would allow a Flash plugin like on other devices -- it's a security risk and a user experience hit -- but a Flash Player? Apple could work with Adobe to create a Flash app much like the YouTube app. A single app that, if it detects Flash video anywhere else on the device, especially Safari, it can take the handoff and play it in its own little, highly optimized, hopefully hardware accelerated, Flash-cookie-free sandbox. (Much how the QuickTime player handles H.264 video). It's not 2007 anymore, and 2011 isn't Flash free, so it's time to bite the bullet on this one.

Also want:

• Creative Suite Viewer That I can view AutoCad docs on my iPhone and iPad and not Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign is a disgrace. Get on that, Adobe!

Google: Gmail

I don't want to come off as greedy, since my mind is still blown by getting Google Voice and Google Latitude in 2010, but in 2011 I really, truly would like a native Gmail app that can handle things like attaching pictures and video (and Files.app, right Apple?). In a perfect world Google would have made Gmail more compatible with other mail systems, seamlessly handling labels as folders and stars as flags. In a perfect world, Apple would actually handle things like stars/flags in the built-in Mail app. But keeping with the pragmatic theme of this post, and acknowledging how annoying separate email apps are on Android, I'd still like a native Gmail app for iPhone and iPad. If it gets decent push notifications built in, like the Google Mobile app, I won't even have to worry about iOS not having a "set default mail client" setting.

Also want:

• Google Navigation When Android got this for free we heard rumors iPhone would be getting it as well. Then not. Then again. Then not again. Google, just do it.

(If you could somehow get Apple to add those newfangled vector graphics to the Google-powered, built-in Maps app, we'd appreciate that as well).

Microsoft: Office

Documents to Go is great. QuickOffice is grand. Even Google Docs is usable over the web. But Microsoft, baby (can I call you baby?) none of those are Office. Sure, Office is a beast of a suite, as frustrating as it is fantastic, but it's the standard and it belongs on iPhone and iPad. You've built it for Windows Mobile. You've built it for Windows Phone. You've even built it for Mac and are working on it for Nokia. You know how to do Apple and you know how to do mobile, so it's time to do Mobile Apple. Sure you lose a differentiator for your own OS, but you had no problem doing that for Exchange, did you? Microsoft, stop teasing us and make 2011 the year of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPhone and iPad. Okay?

Also want:

• Outlook ActiveSync is okay but for hard core Exchange users a native Outlook app is every bit as important as a native Gmail app is to Googlers. Let's get that sync'ed.
• Zune Pass Apple hasn't done subscription music yet but they have sold a gazillion iOS devices. Get those users on Zune Pass before iTunes.com launches.

RIM: BlackBerry Connect

CrackBerry Kevin already laid out why, in a post Kik-world, RIM would be better off owning the cross-platform instant messaging space than sitting on the sidelines while some third-party service breaks the crack off from the berry, so I'll just echo his sentiments here. BlackBerry Connect used to bring BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to other devices; it could do the same again. Do I expect to see Big Mike bound across a WWDC stage any time soon? No, but Apple did announce a Microsoft ActiveSync license at the iOS 2 event in 2008, so announcing a BlackBerry Connect license in 2011 wouldn't be unprecedented.

Also want:

• BrickBreaker. Kidding! Give me BBM and I'm good.

Your picks?

Those the top 5 big name apps I'd like to see come to iPhone and iPad in 2011. What are yours? (Besides Facebook for iPad, of course!)

We just finished having a sit down with the fine folks from DocsToGo and they shared some exciting news about DocsToGo Premium: Desktop Sync and Google Sync are en route! They expect they'll be submitting the app to the Apple in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned for the release. DocsToGo is currently $14.99 in the App Store.

Document Sync with the desktop works just like you would expect it to: plug in and Sync. What's more exciting for me (and for cloud-lovers everywhere) is that you'll be able to sync with all the documents you've stored up at Google Docs. It's a full sync client - meaning that you can download and edit documents offline and then sync them up with Google Docs later. Another thing worth noting is that Google recently updated Google Docs to allow you to upload any file - which means you will be able to upload and store PDFs, images, and documents to Google Docs and then access them later with DocsToGo. (Video after the break!)

Otherwise, as it always is with major mobile conferences, the iPhone isn't officially here but unofficially it's everywhere. My completely unscientific method of "hey, what's in people's hands" poll shows that it's slightly edging out Nokia as the most popular phone at Mobile World Congress.

According to the gadget website T3, Microsoft Senior Product Manager Mike Tedesco recently let it be known that the Seattle based company is currently toying with the possibility of creating a version of their Office suite for Apple's iPad.

"Yeah, it's something that we're looking at," said Microsoft's Mike Tedesco, who is the Senior Product Manager for WindowsBU. "Obviously the announcement (of the iPad) is really fresh and there's nothing to announce or nothing that I can talk to you about today. We've had tablet technology forever and both Windows 7 and Windows Vista automatically detect that and you can be running your Office on there."

This is great news as it is has the ability to attract a huge sector of business users to the iPad. Perhaps this is just a sign of things to come between Apple and Microsoft. We first heard the rumor of the two companies trying to oust Google by making Bing the default search engine on iPhone. Now we learn Microsoft is interested in Office on iPad and what's next, Office on iPhone?

[Via MacRumors via T3]

We seen both mobile players, QuickOffice and Docs2Go announce upcoming Word and Excel editing suites for the iPhone, but rumors of the king of the desktop doc jungle, Microsoft itself, entering the space remain just that: rumors. For now. TechCrunch has the latest:

I’m here at the Web 2.0 Expo keynote, where Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division, hinted that we may be seeing Microsoft Office make its way to the iPhone some time soon. After his interviewer Tim O’Reilly caught him on the comment, Elop backtracked a bit, stating “not yet, keep watching”. But it’s clear that an iPhone version of Office is on his mind.

So, do we need Big Redmond to give us Office for iPhone, or are the already-announced mobile players enough? Could they provide something no one else outside of Microsoft ever could? Like... Clippy for iPhone?!

We've mentioned the original, FREE, MobileFiles application before, which lets you access MobileMe's iDisk via the iPhone. Well, now we've also got MobileFiles Pro and along with the $9.99 price tag comes a killer feature that a lot of productivity mavens have no doubt been waiting for:

EDIT! native Microsoft Excel 2003 documents just as you would on your desktop. Save the edited Excel file on your iPhone, send to your iDisk account remotely, or upload to your desktop using WiFi - all while maintaining perfect data integrity.

MobileFiles Pro is developed by QuickOffice, so this definitely makes the kind of sense that does. The only question is: when will Word and PowerPoint editing follow?

Have you tried MobileFiles yet? If so, let us know what you think!

Sure, Microsoft's online Live/Mesh/Azure strategy is just a tad less complicated than n-dimensional string theory, but it looks like when the next version of Office (14) ships with it's GoogleDocs/Zoho competing Office Web, it will include support for not only Mac OS X... but for the iPhone's MobileSafari browser as well!

According to Macworld, neither release date nor price point are known, but it should be a companion to Office 14 which is slated for 2009(-ish?)

Looking for a mobile office suite for your iPhone? Almost a year ago, when the SDK was announced, Dataviz looked for iPhone users input:

You can bet we’ll have our hands on this SDK as soon as possible. I can’t guarantee anything, but please, if you are interested in having DataViz software on your iPhone, let us know!

Well you spoke up and they listened! It is official that Dataviz is bringing Documents to Go, the very popular office suite, over to the iPhone:

This is great news for former Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile users. With this software users can view, edit, or create Microsoft Office content. All of the big apps are covered including Powerpoint, Word, and Excel.

Dataviz now has a website you can visit to sign up for release information here in this link.

[Thanks for the tip jwc194!]

Greg "Joz" Joswiak, Apple's head of iPod and iPhone marketing shed some light on the iPhone 3G/2.0 and some of its highly requested, yet still missing functionality, like where's our ability to select text, cut it or copy it, and paste it?

Apple has a priority list of features, and they got as far as they could down that list with this model

Why isn't there a constant yet ever-so-slightly-disappointed voice telling us we missed our last ten exists and threatening to "re-calculate"?

[T]here are some murky "complicated issues" preventing driving directions apps at the moment. "It will evolve. I think our developers will amaze us."

Like TomTom?

With regards to David Pogue's claim that Apple said the iPhone 3G GPS antenna was too small for turn-by-turn?

Find his answer after the jump!

That's wrong; the iPhone's GPS is just like the GPS in other phones, many of which do provide driving directions

We can view Microsoft Office and Apple iWork docs in iPhone 2.0, why can't we edit or create them?

[T]here might be issues with applications each having their own file space. "There's no cross-application file structure."

TiPB is still waiting on DocsToGo as well. What about unspecified technical issues?

[D]idn't know of any such hold-ups.

Does that mean there aren't any, there are but they remain unknown, or that the ones he knows off are all very specified?

Time, and future 2.x firmware updated will hopefully tell.

Chalk another developer up for the iPhone App Watch: Microsoft. Microsoft has a small team called the MacBU that develops the very successful Office Suite for the Mac -- an office suite that until the recent version was widely thought to be more advanced than even its Windows counterpart and in some ways a "test bed" for features that would eventually make it into the Windows version of Office.

It may surprise some to hear that Microsoft is looking at the iPhone for development, but it ought not. I mean, they just all got buddy buddy with full ActiveSync Exchange support, so a little thing like utilizing the SDK for a Mini-Office app ain't no thang.

“It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone,” Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group, told Fortune on Monday. “To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now.” - FORTUNE [via MacRumors]

What does all this SDK talk mean with respect to the popular DataViz products like Documents To Go? Read on, my friends!

Although it's easy to be swallowed up in the sea of information spilling forth from the SDK Roadmap earlier today, and even though I'm still hoping for Stevie J to throw us a bone (like copy/paste ready for download from iTunes? ahem), I'm trying to stay calm. Deep breath. Maybe another piece of good news will help.

One of my favorite apps from my Treo days is DataViz's DocsToGo. I tried to reach DataViz for comment with regard to the SDK release and their plans for bringing their products to the iPhone, but alas, the time-zone gods are against me and all I could come up with was a blurb from their website. Read their statement and glean what you can:

We are currently investigating the opportunity to develop Documents To Go, RoadSync, Passwords Plus and any of our other software titles for the iPhone and would appreciate your feedback.

Here's our feedback: Yes, Please.

After the break, DataViz CEO Dick Fontana talks up the SDK for Fox News. [via] -- "DataViz has a long relationship with Apple which gives Dick reason to be optimistic about the opportunities for DataViz with the iPhone." -- indeed.