Microsoft Office for iPad spotted, soon to hit App Store [Update: Or not]

9to5 Staff | Feb 21 2012 - 5:38 am PT

Update: Whooooaaaaa…hold your horses. Microsoft says it ain’t so:

A Microsoft spokeswoman issued this statement: “The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment.”

Corroborating earlier reports, Rupert Murdoch’s tablet-only magazine The Daily apparently saw a work-in-progress version of Microsoft’s native Office app for iPad, and the publication posted the above screenshot to prove it exists. The Daily’s first impressions?

The app’s user interface is similar to the current OneNote app, but it has hints of Metro, the new design language that can be seen in Windows Phone and in the as-yet-released Windows 8 desktop operating system. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited locally and online.

According to unnamed sources, the team wrapped up the project and will soon submit the app for approval. An Android version of Office is not in the works, “sources familiar with the matter” said, but the Windows maker is putting the finishing touches on the new OneNote iOS app said to sport the Metro user-interface overhaul. When Office for iPad finally arrives, it will compete with the likes of Documents to Go, Quickoffice and Apple’s own Pages, Keynote and Numbers apps, which at $9.99 each might be hard to beat.