Google has acquired mobile productivity app maker Quickoffice, ahead of a possible November release of Microsoft Office for tablet devices.
Quickoffice is an office suite for tablets and mobile devices that is compatible with Microsoft Office, and includes Quickword (a word processor), Quicksheet (an Excel-style spreadsheet program) and QuickPoint (a PowerPoint-style presentation program).
In a statement, Google engineering director Alan Warren said: “Quickoffice has an established track record of enabling seamless interoperability with popular file formats, and we’ll be working on bringing their powerful technology to our [Google] Apps product suite”.
“Quickoffice has a strong base of users, and we look forward to supporting them while we work on an even more seamless, intuitive and integrated experience.”
Last week, it was reported that Microsoft intends to release a version of Office for tablet devices, including Apple iPad and Android tablets, on November 10.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
