If you use Office you’d probably love a version for your iPhone. Sure you’d have to put up with the bloat that seems sytemic in Office applications but you could work on the Grunkel account spreadsheet while you were riding in the subway. Or waiting to pick up your kid. Or shipping fine champaign in betwixt polo matches. Whatever.

The bad news: no sign of a native Office app on the iPhone. Not surprising, iPhone apps are rapidly becoming either very cheap or very forgotten so expecting Microsoft to crank out an iPhone app for $.99 or even $49.99 isn’t realistic. On the bright side Microsoft is working on web based version of the Office Suite. And, according to Sarahintampa at on10 the web version will work with the iPhone. Let’s get a quote in here:

Q: Do the Office Web Applications require Internet Explorer?

A: No! Office Web applications will work across multiple platforms and browsers including Safari and Firefox, too.

Q: Will the Office Web Applications work on the iPhone?

A: Yes, in the Safari web browser.

That should remove all doubt. What is left to speculation is just how Office-ish the web version will be. Sure, a ton of people hate office but an even bigger hoard is reliant on the suite of programs for everything but the the browser. For the Office reliant folks this could be a productivity boon if the web based version is good enough.