Microsoft Office for iPad to Launch on March 27

Microsoft will launch its Office suite on the iPad at a media event on March 27 according to a report from The Verge. The suite -- including Word, Excel and PowerPoint -- has been in the works for years, with recent reports saying the lack of Office on the iPad was costing Microsoft as much as $2.5 billion per year.

The company released a version of Office on the iPhone last year, part of its Office 365 subscription service, and The Verge says the iPad version will also require a 365 subscription.

Microsoft has been working on the software for a number of months now, having first introduced an iOS version of Office for the iPhone in June last year. We understand the iPad variant of Office will be similar to the iPhone version, and will require an Office 365 subscription for editing. We’re told that document creation and editing is fully supported for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. Overall, the interface and features are expected to be similar to the existing iPhone version.

The site says new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will expand on his "mobile first, cloud first" strategy, something demonstrated by the free launch of the Mac version of OneNote earlier today.

Microsoft is also said to have an update for Office for Mac coming in the Spring of 2014.

Update 4:44PM PDT: Twitter user @rgonzalezagui posted what he says is a screenshot of Office for iPad leaked by a Microsoft employee:

@MacRumors leaked by an actual Microsoft employee... pic.twitter.com/llXJLtHwF3 — Ricardo González (@rgonzalezagui) March 17, 2014