SharePoint Updates Early Summer 2012: Office and iPad, SharePoint 2013

Could Microsoft launch Office for the Apple iPad this fall? Quite possibly yes--at its SharePoint Conference starting November 12.

Reporting yesterday, in "Source: Microsoft Will Launch Office For iPad In November," Business Insider says the ubiquitous Office suite of products will be "available to buy for the holiday season, and our source says Microsoft will be doing volume licensing at the start of 2013."

Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2012 may well be the place to be this fall, as we await releases of SharePoint v15 as well as the entire Office suite. When NDAs lift, our authors, most of whom are SharePoint MVPs and privy to the actual details, will be writing and posting information at the SharePoint Pro website about what to expect and how to prepare.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out Dan Holme's honest and blunt advice on Windows 8 and SharePoint v15: "Microsoft Bets Farm on New Releases: Windows 8 and SharePoint v15."

Additionally, Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley wrote in March that Microsoft will call its next release of SharePoint v15 and SharePoint Online "SharePoint 2013." Basing her predictions in part on the SharePoint Online 15 technology preview, Foley said to expect the following:

•Integration with SAP via a cloud version of Duet.
•A new Office Web Apps server will run web versions of Microsoft Office.
•Metro UI will appear, ala Windows 8, with tiles in site collections.
•Rights Management Services (RMS) integrated in SharePoint.
•Apple iPad support for viewing business intelligence (BI) content.

See the rest of her blog post, "Microsoft to boost Office 365 with Project and Visio cloud services."