Steve Ballmer has confirmed that an iPad version of Office is in the works

Oct 9, 2013 05:57 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft’s outgoing CEO has confirmed at the Gartner Symposium ITXpo in Orlando, Fla. that Redmond is working on a touch-optimized version of Office that would eventually be launched on the iPad as well.

Ballmer hasn’t provided too many details on this new project, but he did confirm that the iPad version would only be unveiled after the full touch version of the productivity suite goes live.

“iPad will be picked up when there's a touch-first user interface. That's in progress for Office,” Ballmer said, while also pointing out that Outlook is very unlikely to be part of the release.

Microsoft has already announced that it’s working to bring more touch-optimized Office applications in the Windows Store, with people familiar with the matter hinting that this won’t happen before 2014.

As far as the Office productivity suite is concerned, word is that Microsoft is preparing not only a touch version of the software product for Windows 8, but also Linux, Android, and iOS ports to be launched next year.

As usual, Microsoft remains tight-lipped on these projects, but Microsoft has clearly seen the opportunity in bringing Office on new platforms, so this is likely to happen rather sooner than later.