Tuesday 6 August 2013

Microsoft Office Arrives To Android Smartphones

Microsoft has launched a mobile version of its Office Suite for Android smartphones, available just in the US for now with more countries to follow in the coming weeks.Despite struggling to establish itself as a mobile tool, Microsoft Office remains the go-to productivity software for PCs so it’s about time we got our hands on a fully-functioning Android version.                                                
                                           
Microsoft is bringing a pared-down version of its Office to Android phones which will be available starting Wednesday. It costs a $100-a-year subscription to Office and won’t be sold separately.

Microsoft released the long-awaited iPhone version of its Office productivity suite recently, and now it’s showing that it’s not picky about platforms with the Android version, out now. Office for Android is smartphone-only, just like how Office for iPhone doesn’t come with an iPad version, and it’s also limited to Office 365 subscribers, but if you satisfy both those conditions, you can get making those PowerPoints, Word docs and Excel spreadsheets now.

More than a month ago, android smartphone Microsoft launched its Office Mobile application for iPhone, and now finally it has arrived on Android’s Google Play. The application itself is free, but it requires a paid Office 365 subscription.

Microsoft’s Android application looks pretty much identical to the iPhone one, with modern clean visuals. It brings an optimized version of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and allows you to create documents and stylesheets.

In short, Android tablets need not apply. "Therefore, you will not be able to download and install Office Mobile for Android phones on an Android tablet from the Google Play store," said Gilbert. He recommended that Android tablet users should point their browsers to the Office Web Apps.

However, if we look at it from the cost perspective, subscription model can be more expensive than buying the package for just one or two computers. With the subscription model, users can use Microsoft Office in up to 10 devices. Five of them could be Mac/Windows PCs or Windows tablets. Rest of the devices could be iPhones or Android phones. Windows Phone devices come packed with Office 365 out-of-the-box

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