Microsoft feeds its enemies with Office for iOS, Android — coming early 2013

Office for iOS and Android exists, and it’s coming next year.

The Verge has unearthed screenshots of the iOS version of the software, which, strangely, doesn’t feature the Metro interface found in pretty much all of Microsoft’s recent software.

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While we’ve suspected that Office was coming for a while now, Microsoft hasn’t been all that forthcoming with its intentions for the software, which was initially rumored to hit the iPad this year.

Microsoft has a shrewd plan for Office Mobile: While users can view documents for free, editing them requires a subscription to Office 365, which runs at least $4 per month. Unsurprisingly, Windows Phone Office users can edit for free.

The big question is this: Why is Microsoft bringing Office to Android and iOS at all? Shouldn’t Office be the kind of thing that gets consumers to buy a Windows device over those of competitors?

The answer is actually really simple: Microsoft isn’t stupid. It knows there’s a lot more money in creating Office for iOS and Android than limiting it to Windows. Recent forays into hardware aside, Microsoft is still mostly a software company. And it wants people using its software.