14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s Office is quickly becoming must-have software on iOS and Android and that’s a reason for the Redmond-based tech giant to be proud of its plan to release the productivity suite on rival platforms.
Things have developed so well for Office and Microsoft on iOS and Android that the number of downloads rapidly increased in the last few months, according to official numbers provided by Microsoft’s CEO himself.
Satya Nadella said during the company’s earnings call today that the number of downloads that Office received on iOS and Android surpassed 100 million, which is kind of a new record for an application designed to run on non-Microsoft mobile platforms.
Available for free in stores
Microsoft Office is available free of charge on iOS and Android, after the productivity suite was initially offered with a fee on the iPad.
The company first launched Office for iPad last year, allowing Apple fanboys to download it from the store and use it as a document viewer. For editing purposes, an Office 365 subscription was needed, otherwise the app remained nothing more than a DOCX document viewer.
Shortly after that, Microsoft decided to make all features available at no charge, so anyone with an Android or iOS device can nowadays download it from the store.
But Microsoft’s plans for the Office suite goes beyond that. A revamped version of the app will be launched on Windows 10 for phones as well, with a preview projected to be unveiled later this month, most likely at the BUILD developer conference that kicks off next week.
At the same time, users of Windows 10 can already download touch-optimized versions of Office for their PCs from the store, but just like their mobile siblings, they’re still in development stage. All phones running Windows 10 will come with Office pre-installed, while on PCs, they’ll all be available free of charge in the store.