Microsoft Office for ARM; will some apps die?

So we know that work is underway at Microsoft to release an ARM-native build of Office for Apple devices running their new M1 chip.

Obviously right-now ARM versions of Office apps already exist for Android and iOS. (And didn’t Windows RT have ports of the mobile versions?)

I’d imagine in-tandem with the new ARM build for Apple M1 devices, it should help an official release for Windows 10 on ARM get nearer.

BUT… one thing all those platforms share is that they only run around half of the Office family apps. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote.

So what will happen to the Windows-only apps: Access, Publisher, Project and Visio?

Will they eventually just get dropped, or will they remain only-as AMD64 apps, and never get ported to ARM? (So future versions of Office on W10oA will be a mix-of ARM and AMD64 apps?)

Conversation 2 comments

  • BigM72

    21 November, 2020 - 2:25 am

    <p>I imagine that whatever exists for Intel Mac today is what will get ported over to ARM Macs. That’s going to be geared to the user type rather than engineering effort. The big enterprises who are likely to be the ones using Visio, Access etc are likely to be Windows shops already.</p>

  • davepete

    02 June, 2021 - 2:37 am

    <p>I have no inside info, but I’m pretty sure Publisher has been in maintenance mode for at least a decade. If it *HAS* a dedicated team in Redmond, it must be tiny. It’s very unlikely to be ported to ARM.</p>

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