Windows Phone to get refreshed Office, Microsoft may make official announcement on January 21st

Microsoft has been putting a lot of effort in expanding the reach and availability of its standard bearing products like Office, notably releasing mobile optimized versions for iOS and Android while its native mobile platform, Windows Phone, just sort of chills in the corner waiting its turn for some updated goodness.

Windows Phone is not alone, a touch-optimized version of Office is still in a holding pattern for Windows-based tablets.

The big splash Microsoft made was releasing Office for iPad, then tweaking it a bit so that at least the basic functionality could be managed without forcing the user into an Office 365 subscription. Then, Office for Android tablets was announced, but was only initially available through a registration request during the Beta, and there should be a general release early this year.

When will Microsoft give some of its own Windows platforms some love? Well Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft took to social media to reaffirm that the Office team “has not forgotten Windows Phone.” Though, he did not announce that on Facebook or Twitter, but on his Chinese Weibo profile.

The image is a little small, so here is the text of the entire message:



While Joe’s letter does not provide any specifics, it is entirely possible we will learn all the details at an analyst meeting set for January 21st in Redmond, where Microsoft executives will outline a number of consumer-oriented features coming to the new version of Windows.

Taking Joe at his word, we will definitely learn something before February 19th because that is when the Chinese New Year begins.

sources: Weibo via Softpedia