Microsoft plans to update Office for iPad Pro with support for Apple Pencil, Slide Over and Split View multitasking, more
Office updates for the iPad Pro, iOS 9 and WatchOS 2 — Today Apple announced the iPad Pro, iOS 9 and WatchOS 2. We've developed a number of new features for Word …
Context & Ripple Effects
At the iPad Pro's announcement, Microsoft is positioning Office as a first-class citizen on Apple's largest tablet rather than waiting to port desktop behavior — committing to Apple Pencil 'ink' in its iOS apps alongside Slide Over and Split View under iOS 9. That puts Microsoft's suite on stage for Apple's productivity push, not just Apple's own iWork.
The relationship has since deepened in both directions: within months Apple was selling Office 365 as an accessory for the iPad Pro in its own stores, and Microsoft kept compounding the investment with real-time co-authoring and drag-and-drop before moving toward cursor and trackpad support. This update is the origin point of that loop.
First-order effects
- iPad Pro buyers get a Pencil-annotatable, multitasking-capable Office on day one, removing the main software objection to using the tablet for document work instead of a laptop.
- Apple gets Microsoft's productivity suite as launch-window validation for the iPad Pro hardware, strengthening the pitch against traditional PCs.
Second-order effects
- Apple's response cuts both ways — it embraces Office commercially by merchandising Office 365 as an iPad Pro accessory while simultaneously upgrading iWork with Pencil integration and, later, trackpad and mouse support to keep its free suite credible against Microsoft's paid one.
- Each iOS capability Apple ships (Split View, drag-and-drop, pointer input) becomes a feature checklist Microsoft must implement in Office for iOS, tying the suite's release cadence to iPadOS's evolution.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the iPad converges on laptop-replacement status through input parity: stylus, multitasking, then pointer support arrive in both suites, and competition shifts from 'does it exist on iPad' to which ecosystem's documents and services lock users in — Office 365 subscriptions versus free iCloud-linked iWork.
The trend: Office and iWork are iteratively matching each other's input capabilities on the iPad, turning Apple's tablet into a genuine laptop alternative whose software battleground is set by alternating moves from Microsoft and Apple.