Job Listing Hints at Outlook for iOS

After rumors earlier this year that Microsoft is looking at porting its Office productivity suite to Apple’s iOS platform, specifically the iPad, it looks like Microsoft is also looking at bringing its Outlook software to iOS. According to 9 to 5 Mac, a recent job listing from Microsoft is looking for someone to test Outlook on the Mac and on iOS, though the listing did not specify if its the native version of Outlook for iOS, or if Outlook is just a vague term used for Exchange Active Sync, a standard that’s employed by many email providers to provide push email.

On the desktop platforms, such as Windows and Mac OS X, Microsoft’s Outlook software incorporates calendar, contacts, notes, and email synchronization. Outlook offers a consolidated view with multiple email boxes. On the iPhone, Apple already provides its own apps for calendar, contacts, notes, and emails, and Apple is using and licensing Microsoft’s Exchange Active Sync protocol to deliver push email through its iCloud email system.

If the full version and functionally of Outlook does make its way to iOS as an app, the app may appeal to enterprise customers who may want to have better integration with Microsoft Exchange servers or for those who want to keep work and personal information management separate.

In the past, Office for Mac was rumored to be coming in November and would include such apps as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.

Microsoft is also releasing a new version of Office for its Windows 8 and ARM-based Windows RT tablets. A new office suite is also coming for Windows Phone 8 when that platform debuts this Fall.