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Today’s big news was that Microsoft Office was now available for iPad for those with an Office 365 subscription, but a bit of Android-related goodies were tucked inside the blog posts that you might care about. Starting today, Office for Android (and iPhone, if you care) is being made completely free.
That means you can both view and edit documents from your Android phone, and you won’t have to pay Microsoft $10 per month for that privilege. It’s a key change in the company’s strategy under new CEO Satya Nadella, one that sees Microsoft focusing more on becoming a services and software company aimed at ALL users rather than trying to sell Windows and Windows alone.
The change hasn’t hit the Google Play Store just yet, though we imagine that should happen at some point later today. We’ll be keeping an eye out for its arrival, and we’ll update this post once that happens. It’s in the Google Play Store right here if you want to get it onto your phone before the update hits.
[via iSource]
Already stopped using office on my computer due to their ridiculous prices, no need to use it on my Android…
Ridiculous prices? I got my copy from their awesome home-use program through my employer. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath, Lync – for $9.95.
Not everybody’s employer offers HUP, and if they have to pay retail price for it, it *is* expensive.
Office 365 seems like a decent option if you have family/friends to share it with – 5 PCs for $99.99/year. Split that 5 ways and it’ll be 7 years before you reach the current Home and Student price of $140. I agree with you that it is expensive, but you have options now unlike the old days.
Not everyone has the convenience of sharing the cost among 5 people.
Google docs is free, your argument is invalid.
Also no. No way in hell am I signing up for $100 a year just to use office.
The best option is to not use it :)
Google docs is nice for basic things. I would think most people would have a copy of Office even if its Office XP, 2003, 2007, or 2010 – or could get a copy from someone who is no longer using the old version.
I would think most people are only using basic stuff. Besides Open/Libre Office covers even the more advanced use cases.
Quit selling, we’re not buying any.
See – that’s the good thing about the market. Consumers choose what they want.
If you can get by with Google docs, absolutely, use it! For folks who are looking to work in (relatively) large corporations, knowledge of MS office products is pretty much required.
Google Docs etc are perfectly adequate for home users who need to create a simple home budget, or write up a newsletter for the kid’s baseball team etc. It can probably do more too.
But again, for anyone looking for a job in a large corporation (most of which do use MS office), you better know how to use MS office. As I mentioned earlier, it *IS* expensive, and I wish MS would make it more affordable. HUP is a great program. My employer offers it, but unfortunately, a lot of them don’t.
If you are going to violate the license why not just pirate it?
It is up to 5PCs in the same home. Not any 5 random PCs.
Note: I am not actually suggesting piracy, I am suggesting obeying the license. I do not use MS office on any device or OS.
I didn’t realize that – a deal for college students and their roommates then.
They already have a way better deal for students.
Paying for a subscription service is nuts when it comes to word processors.
Google Docs, LibreOffice, and OpenOffice are free. There’s no need to pay Microsoft’s extortion rates for word processing and spreadsheets.
Don’t bother installing Office for Android, I’m using the fabulous TextMaker et Office will never beat it (I am a a writer)
If it wasn’t for HUP, I might not be using it for home used. I’m need to for work in order to the most compatible with my co-workers.
Wow, Microsoft is loosening their stranglehold on charging customers for everything? Nice. Already downloaded.
I’ll never understand why they have it marked incompatible for tablets. Given the choice, I’d much rather install it on a tablet with more screen real estate.
Hmmm… Late-to-the-party Office 365 that only works on my phone vs OfficeSuite7 that works on my phone and tablet? Try harder Mr. Nadella.
Appears to be available now, I’m currently installing.
wich site u download?
it took two years..but cool nuts.
Or you could just continue to use one of the many free alternatives that have been available for years…..
Thought the same thing the moment I saw this article. If they’d made office available in Android 18 months they could have made millions more.
Honestly…All my papers are in APA 6th Edition. Format…Google Docs does everything for that just fine…so……damn I forgot where I was going with this….
Only problem I have with Google Docs is the formatting gets a bit wonky when you switch it over to Microsoft Office since I submit my files after re-formatting because of a few profs complained.
lol i thought it was just me haha
No Note 3 AT&T support apparently.
Seriously? Wow.
My bad, it was just a problem off the PC Google Chrome Browser Google Play Store site. It worked when I was on my regular phone.
No need to apologize bro, I just thought it was really unfortunate such a recently released devices wouldn’t be supported.
Looks like its a good time if you’re a writer.
Wow they charged for that. I just installed to check it out and wow there are way better office apps that have always been free
I’ll not be downloading it, there are loads of excellent alternatives. Down with Microsoft!
pass… Already replaced my last windows device with a chromebook. Good thing they have xbox cause otherwise Microsoft would be dead to me.
Not trying to be rude here, but do you use your computer to do any real work?
Yes
Are you implying that ‘real work’ cannot be done on a chromebook? If so, I completely disagree. Granted, if you’re just using the Chrome OS you’re a bit more limited than with a full-size OS, but I run Ubuntu on mine in parallel with Chrome OS. Those two together gives me better functionality than anything Microsoft ever released.
If your a fan of the Google way of life, then you don’t miss anything with Chrome OS. The big hurdle people have often is they just don’t like the cloud way… but in the end they can all do the same things.
Even the last great hold out, programming, has made it’s way into the cloud. You can start right from a cloud based IDE and finish with either a published Android/iPhone app on their respective markets or have your WebApp up and running. All without leaving your browser.
i wish this came out earlier and i might have kept my tablet
Only a phone version is available anyway.
i wish this came out earlier before i finished college and sold my tablet
I agree. I have like 4 months left. Google Drive really wasn’t much help. It kept getting rid of my table formats. =.[
At least you were able to experience tablets in college. Freshman year, I had to carry around a 5lbm 17″ brick of a Dell laptop.
Tried it and it’s great. Now I can finally leave Google Docs and get some real work done.
Too late… YEARS late. I’ve already moved to Google Drive for all of my documents.
Seriously!? You can use Google Drive? I must be spoiled by what MS Office can do.
I use google docs, I’ve never/rarely needed to use any other features, and if I do its Libre Office for me at home or Kingsoft Office on my phone!
I’m curious what spoiling you got from Office that isn’t on Drive? For the most part, it’s all just slightly different but equal. The biggest thing to get used to is moving from VBA to JavaScript for Macros.
Biggest bummer for me is that Google Drive doesn’t work offline. It’s fine as a Word replacement, but unfortunately I haven’t seen any spreadsheet apps that can come close to desktop Excel.
It does work offline – do a google, its just a setting you need to set.
Hmm… maybe for Excel and nothing more. Google Docs 99% of the time
Only wish it worked on tablets…
Did we really need this? We’ve had a tablet and phone office that isn’t Google docs for a little while now, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cn.wps.moffice_eng
I will literally never use this, but I still installed it anyway just to see what it’s like. Meh. Drive (docs and stuff) works perfect. MS needs to give it up =)
It seems both my Nexus 5 and 7 are not able to install the application.
Installed and ran fine on my Nexus 5 but I uninstalled it. OfficeSuite Pro already works better. QuickOffice is pretty much useless, MS was a hair better. You are not missing much without MS.
Since my children have to use MS Office for most of their school stuff, this is great news for me. I have the 365 subscription, but too many devices for all of them the have it on their phones. We have the WDMyCloud (present from hubby) and to use Drive with the cloud we have to pay a fee. The kids can’t access the cloud from school computers (damn firewalls), so in order to email something to themselves in a pinch, they need Office to do it.
Zero interest in this… Only has Word, Excel and PowerPoint, only supports cloud storage and no option to save locally, only compatible with MS docs (won’t even open text docs), no printing support and works ONLY on phones (not tablets).
This is a marketing gimmick… In effect only good for reading a document for approval /edification purposes (creating/editing a document on a phone is about as fun as fingers on a chalkboard). Might as well be the Acrobat Reader for MS with its functionality.
It is available now as I put it on downloading and kept
my phone on wireless charger to explore more from this free version of office 365.
Microsoft now accepted the fact the android is at number position in the world
of Smartphones.
Biggest bummer for me is that Google Drive doesn’t work offline. It’s fine as a Word replacement, but unfortunately I haven’t seen any spreadsheet apps that can come close to desktop Excel. http://qr.net/rtcX
Microsoft Office Mobile for Android Review: http://youtu.be/K0L9sLiS4c4