Microsoft Office 2013 may come to iOS, Android in March next year

With the Windows 8 launch drawing close, rumours about Microsoft’s offerings are flowing thick and fast. The latest seems to be about Office 13, the latest version of the company’s popular productivity suite. The Verge reports that Petr Bobek, Microsoft Product Manager yesterday confirmed to Czech news site IHNEZ that the software giant is planning to release a native version of Office 13 for both iOS and Android by March 2013. Bobek was apparently speaking at a press event in the Czech Republic yesterday.

The Verge states that it had seen a press release from Microsoft’s Czech Republic team that confirmed Bobek’s statements. “In addition to Windows, Office will be also available on other operating systems, Windows Phone, Windows RT, Mac OS, Android, iOS and Symbian,” The Verge cites the press release as stating. The press release also noted that there will be a new version of Office Web Apps too.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Might come to Android and iOS in early 2013? Seems possible

The press release goes on to state that Office 13 will be available for enterprise customers in December of this year, and the consumer launch is set to be in late February 2013. “Office 365 services and other Office products for mobile (phones and tablets) will be released from March 2013,” it reads.

According to reports in the media, Microsoft has said that while Office Mobile will work across the Windows Phone, iOS and android platforms, it has nothing additional to reveal right now. The company has also released a statement on the matter denying the report: “The information shared by our Czech subsidiary is not accurate. We do not have anything further to share at this time.”

Both iOS and Android users have access to a host of productivity applications and suites that allow them to view, edit, and create documents traditionally used with Microsoft’s Office applications. What remains to be seen is whether Microsoft’s Office suite for Android and iOS would have as many features, or would work as well as it does on Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft has still not given out a concrete release date for the Office 2013 suite for, but it recently announced the official pricing. Standalone versions of the software in the suite will be available for activation on a single machine. Along with this, the entire suite will also be available in the form of different packages, depending on the needs of the users.

Office Home and Student 2013 containing Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, will cost $139 (around Rs 7,500), Office Home and Business 2013 – which contains all the previous software, along with Outlook – will cost $219 (Rs 11,840 approx.) and the high end Professional package containing all the previous software and adds Access and Publisher to the list, will cost $399 (roughly Rs 21,560).