Another long-term strategic angle: does Apple want to lend credence to the notion that Microsoft can write first-class touchscreen tablet apps, when Microsoft is set to ship its own tablet-savvy version of Windows later this year?
Heir Gruber makes a very good point here, however after seeing and pioneering iPad adoption in the enterprise first hand I can honestly say that Office on the iPad is a bigger deal than Apple would like to admit. Until Keynote can play PowerPoint decks with any font substitutions, quirky animations and bizarre smart art interpretation or without forcing the user to export the deck into PDF, there will always be users and IT departments clamouting for a real version of MS Office. And now that the iPad is already a art on the corporate landscape, that voice is only going to get louder.
Via Daring Fireball