Peter Bright at Ars Technica on Microsoft bringing Office to the iPad:

It’s still not official, but the evidence that Microsoft is bringing Office to the iPad and iPhone is growing in abundance. At this point, it seems to be an inevitability that Redmond will release Office apps for iOS in some form in early 2013, with Android apps following soon after.

In so doing, the company stands a good chance of cementing the role of the iPad as a business tool, eroding the advantages of Windows Phone 8 and undermining the entire value proposition of Windows RT. It will also hole Microsoft’s argument that the iPad is “just” for content consumption below the waterline. The upside of Office on iOS? That’s harder to fathom.

You know when you’re playing chess and it you realize you only have one more move left before you’re checkmated?

Microsoft is already there.

They can release Office for iOS and further cement the iPad’s position as the tablet contender with the upper hand (No, I don’t think there will be one marketshare winner in tablets like the Mac/PC war with a 95-to-5-percent ratio) and let Surface fall to the wayside…

or

…not release Office for the iPad and continue to watch Surface not become the hit that Windows was and fall to the wayside.

Either way, Apple is going to follow them around the board until they lose their king.

And Microsoft has run out of moves.