14 DAY TRIAL // This isn’t the first time we hear about a Metro version of the popular Office productivity suite, but it appears that Microsoft is actually very close to completing the development of this product.
ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley writes that an alleged roadmap of Microsoft’s upcoming Office updates indicates that more Modern Office apps are very likely to see daylight by October 2013, so they could very well arrive on the market together with Windows 8.1, a major refresh for Windows 8.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint will all get Metro versions. However, they won’t replace the desktop-based flavors of Office, but they will most likely supplement them.
In addition, Microsoft might be working on a second important release for the Office product family that could be unveiled in April 2014 and would include new versions of Mac Office and Windows Phone Office.