Paul Thurrott might not be a familiar name within the channel-sphere, but he’s well-known within Microsoft and Windows circles. Thurrott currently is a blogging evangelical for Microsoft. He doesn’t work directly for Microsoft but he does co-host a “Windows Weekly” podcast. He leaked some interesting news on September 15th via Twitter. Read on for the rumor and speculation… which may (or may not) involve Microsoft Office for the iPad.

Here it is, in black and white.

Obviously, Thurrott’s ‘leak’ isn’t filled with much detail, but it does have credibility, as Thurrott is known for beta testing much of Microsoft’s software.

Now, one could speculate the new offerings are just bigger versions of Microsoft’s existing iPhone apps (like Bing and MSN Messenger.) That’s not much fun, though. And if Microsoft is going to be working on an iPad-specific app, you have to dream bigger, don’t you?

Office for iPad?

I speculated about Office for the iPad in February 2010, before the iPad even landed in anyone’s laps, and it seemed merely a pipe dream, but now that it’s nearly half a year since the iPad’s debut, the Office for iPad concept warrants a fresh consideration.

Apple launched the iPad with a productivity suite ready to go, all 3 apps (Pages, Keynote and Number — that’s Word, PowerPoint and Excel, respectively) went for $10 each, with Pages dominating the “top purchased” list in the iPad App store for months after the initial iPad release. Those states clearly communicated: People want to do work on their iPad.

Microsoft’s always been big into productivity software, so why not launch a suite of Microsoft-branded productivity apps? Word, PowerPoint and Excel for the iPad could all be competitively priced and come with the added ‘feature’ of being .DOC and .DOCX native.

It’d be a win for Microsoft, because the iPad has native keyboard abilities, it already has a huge adoption rate, and the market has spoken about productivity apps already. It would be a win for Apple to approve those apps, because it would bring in people traditionally unsure about the iPad as a work device, but comfortable when they hear “Yes, it does Microsoft Word.” It would also (presumably) bring Office attachments via the Mail app greater compatibility and usability, making the iPad even more versatile.

This blogger would even pick up a copy of Word for the iPad. So what do you think? Will Microsoft expand Office for the Mac into Office for the iPad? It’s not a bad idea…

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