Office for iOS Is Real, Unless It Isn’t. Unless It Is!

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Earlier today we saw a picture of an iPad running what looked like the official Office app for iOS and we assumed that Microsoft’s productivity suite is finally coming to the App Store. But it seems that we were wrong to think that. Unless we weren’t, and I’ll explain.

Soon after The Daily ran the Office on iPad story, Microsoft intervened to say the photo presented by the publication is false. But the company did not deny that at some point in the future an Office application will be available for iPad and/or iPhone. Here’s what a Microsoft spokeswoman told The New York Times:

A Microsoft spokeswoman issued this statement: “The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment.” She added that a screen image included with The Daily’s article showing an Office product for iPad was “not Microsoft’s software,” she said.

Then the editor of The Daily, Peter Ha, revealed that it was a Microsoft employee that demoed Office on the iPad:

But perhaps that isn’t the entire story. Peter Ha, tech editor at The Daily, said that a Microsoft employee had demonstrated a version of the app on an iPad. “The launch screen may not be final, but the app itself is real,” Mr. Ha said. “We were told that the app was done and it was being tested internally.”

Microsoft then decided another tweet was in order to further clarify or unclarify the matter:

Great respect for The Daily but regrettably someone is giving them bad info, and that’ll be clear in the “coming weeks.”

The conclusion about today’s Microsoft Office for iPad news bonanza is that Microsoft may or may not be working on Office for iOS, that the application may or may have not been recently demoed to a publication and that the app will or will not be launched in the coming weeks.

Does anyone really need a native Office app for iPad? There are plenty of similar productivity apps in the App Store, including Apple’s iWorks suite.