Microsoft Office For iPad Released
As previously reported, during Satya Nadella?s first media event as Microsoft CEO, an event focused on cloud and mobile technologies, which was held in San Francisco, on March 27th, Microsoft unveiled the Microsoft Office suite for the iPad. The Microsoft Office suite that includes well known apps such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint plus support for document creation and editing was rumored to be released for the iPad for a long time and it has even been confirmed by Microsoft officials.
At the recent event, which is the first for Satya Nadella as Microsoft CEO (a position he received recently, after Steve Ballmer retired), Microsoft emphasized its ?mobile first, cloud first? strategy, a strategy that includes Microsoft Office for iPad. The first step towards this strategy was the release, for free, of the OneNote Office app for Mac. As we previously reported, Microsoft already offers the Microsoft Office Mobile suite for the iPhone, since June last year, through the Office 365 licensing program. The Microsoft Office Mobile suite also integrates with OneDrive, which means that all the documents are saved to Microsoft?s cloud storage. The downside is that it offers limited editing capabilities compared to the desktop Microsoft Office suite.
However, unlike the Microsoft Office Mobile suite for the iPhone, the newly released Microsoft Office suite for the iPad comes with separate apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. As we mentioned, The Microsoft Office suite for iPad requires an Office 365 subscription, just like the the Microsoft Office Mobile suite for the iPhone, even though you can download the individual Word app, Excel app and PowerPoint app for free from the App Store. Every new user receives a thirty days trial, to test the Microsoft Office for iPad suite; after the trial period has expired, in order to continue creating and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, you will need an Office 365 subscription. Even if you don’t get an Office 365 subscription after the trial period has expired, you will still be able to open Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents – you just won’t be able to make new files or edit the existing ones.
The new Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, said that ?Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. It?s a unique approach that centers on people ? enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers?. As a direct consequence of Microsoft’s new philosophy, the Microsoft Office for iPad suite will also integrate with OneDrive, so all the documents that you create using the Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps are going to be saved to Microsoft?s cloud storage.
At the recent event held in San Francisco, besides releasing the long rumored Microsoft Office for iPad suite, Microsoft also updated the previously released Microsoft Office Mobile suite for the iPhone to version 1.1. Besides the usual bug fixes and stability improvements, the update also makes the Microsoft Office Mobile for iPhone suite free for home use.
Microsoft took its time in releasing its famous Office suite to the iPad and a very interesting question that you may be asking yourselves is: does it even matter anymore? Especially since last year, on? October 22nd, Apple announced that all iOS devices purchased from September 2013 onward whether new or refurbished, will get a free download of all three iWork apps (Apple?s own office suite). For most iOS users iWork is good enough, not to mention there are no subscription fees as it is a free download and it only requires a free iCloud account to sync. The answer to the question may differ form user to user and it mainly boils down to subjective taste.
But we suspect that many iOS users have already had time to get used to the iWork suite. That is why moving from the free iWork suite that they already have, to another office suite, one they have to pay for if they wish to use it more than thirty days, is just not worth it for most iOS users. Especially since the price per year for an Office 365 subscription is $99. That is why, we suspect that given the price for the Office 365 subscription per year, Microsoft aims the newly released Microsoft Office suite for the iPad at businesses; we don’t see home users paying the subscription price, especially since they already have the free iWork suite, which is good enough for most editing needs. What do you think about the recently released Microsoft Office suite for the iPad? Would you use it beyond the 30 days free trial, or would you rather stick to the iWork office suite? Leave a comment in the dedicated section below.
