Microsoft CEO explains why Office for iPad took so long

We guess it’s safe to say that the wait is finally over regarding Office for iPad. After all it was as far back as 2011 that we started hearing rumors that a version of Office for the iPad was in the works, meaning that it took Microsoft about 3 years before it was trotted out to the public. So why did it take Microsoft so long? According to Microsoft’s newly-minted CEO, Satya Nadella,“The thing we wanted to get most right was the combination of what I would call the combination of the app, the enterprise architecture, the developer APIs”

In announcing Office for iPad, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked about all of the reasons why Microsoft was bringing the software to Apple’s tablet. What he didn’t talk about onstage was why Microsoft didn’t do it sooner, especially since it had been working on versions for years. “We’ve been obviously working on this for a while,” Nadella told reporters. “The thing we wanted to get most right was the combination of what I would call the combination of the app, the enterprise architecture, the developer APIs, and then marry it with the device and what you expect from the device. … It’s not just a trivial thing, let’s port Word for Windows to a particular device.” Office for iPad, which includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint — but notably not Outlook — is slated to be in the App Store at 11 am PT today. Viewing documents is free, but creating or editing them requires an Office 365 subscription.