Microsoft’s Office for Android: Not until fall 2014?

An alleged roadmap for Microsoft’s two-year wave of coming Office updates implies Office for iOS and Android may be further away than many industry watchers thought.

An alleged roadmap for Microsoft’s coming ‘Gemini’ wave of Office updates, if accurate, indicates Microsoft’s Office for iOS and Android — as well as Outlook for Windows RT — may be further away than many hoped and expected. It kicks off with “Gemini wave 1.0,” which includes the “Blue” Metro-Style/Windows Store complements to the core set of Office products — namely, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. From what I’ve heard previously,  these four apps will be more touch-centric and will work on Windows 8 and Windows RT. They will supplement, not replace, the desktop/Win32 versions of these apps that already exist. These apps will be made available to customers by October 2013, according to the purported roadmap.

Also on the roadmap for fall 2014 is what’s listed as iOS/Android support for Office. One would assume this is the expected and widely rumored Office for iPad release. It could, however, be Office for iPhone and Android phone, given that it’s not listed on the roadmap as being tablet-specific. Rumors about Microsoft’s plans to deliver Office for iOS and Android have been circulating for more than a year. Microsoft officials have never outright denied these apps were in development. A number of us Microsoft watchers heard from our various sources that these apps were on track to be delivered by early- to mid-2013.

The most recent rumors/expectations have been that Microsoft may be making these mobile iOS/Android versions of Office available as part of an Office 365 subscription of some kind. The alleged roadmap makes no mention of an Office 365/subscription tie-in. It only mentions “iOS/Android” as a Gemini Fall 2014 deliverable.

In sum, this is what the alleged roadmap indicates:

Gemini Wave 1.0 (October 2013): Windows Blue app updates

Gemini Wave 1.5 (April 2014): Office for Mac; Office RT refresh; Perceptive Pixel support; Windows Phone support refresh

Gemini Wave 2.0 (October 2014): Outlook RT; Office for iOS/Android

Source: zdnet.com