Microsoft Office Comes To iPhone For Office 365 Subscribers
Microsoft's Office
software package is coming to the iPhone for the first time Friday, offering
people the ability to read and edit their text documents, spreadsheets and
slide presentations at the doctor's office or at a soccer game. The company
isn't making an iPad version, though, nor is it offering the app on Android
devices. Microsoft Corp. is treading a fine line as it tries to make its
$100-a-year Office subscription more compelling, without removing an advantage
that tablet computers running Microsoft's Windows system now have - the ability
to run popular Office programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Office
Mobile for iPhone is available free through Apple's app store, but an Office
365 subscription is required to use it. That subscription lets you use Office
on up to five Mac and Windows computers for the annual fee.
A subscription can be more expensive than
buying the package outright for just one or two computers, but the iPhone
version won't be sold separately for those who resist the recurring fee. Microsoft
has been pushing subscriptions as a way to get customers to keep paying for a
product that has historically been sold in a single purchase. The company touts
such benefits as the ability to run the package on multiple computers and get
updates for free on a regular basis. Microsoft said it wants to give customers
yet another reason to embrace subscriptions by offering Office on the iPhone
only with a subscription. Chris Schneider, a marketing manager with Microsoft's
Office team, would not comment on any plans for the iPad or Android. Office is
available on those devices through a Web browser, but it's not as rich or
powerful as having stand-alone software installed directly on the device.
The Web app also
requires an Internet connection, something not always available with many
tablets. The regular version of Office works on Windows 8 tablets, and most of
the features are available on a version designed for tablets running a
lightweight version of Windows called RT. Customers needing to use Office on a
larger screen than a phone might be drawn to the Windows tablets, which have
lagged behind in sales and cachet compared with Apple's iPad and various
devices running Google's Android system. The iPhone app will come with Word,
Excel and PowerPoint and will sync with Microsoft's SkyDrive online storage
service. Microsoft said people will be able to pick up a Word document exactly
where they left off on another computer tied to the same account, while
comments they add to a Word or Excel file will appear when they open it up on
another machine. Although documents will be reformatted to fit the phone's
screen, the company said the iPhone app will preserve charts, animation,
comments and other key properties. That's not always the case with programs
offered by Google and other companies to work with Office files on mobile
devices. But Microsoft said the app won't offer the same range of features
available on regular computers. It's meant for lightweight editing, not complex
calculations or heavy graphical work, Schneider said. Someone about to give a
speech can review a PowerPoint presentation and fix a typo, for instance.
Someone getting a Word or Excel document as an email attachment can add
comments or make changes, then send it back, either as an email attachment or
through a sharing feature on SkyDrive. Rather than have it do everything,
Schneider said, "we designed the Office Mobile for iPhone to meet the
scenarios that make the most sense." The iPhone app also won't have
Outlook for email, Publisher for desktop publishing and Access for databases.
Microsoft's OneNote software for note-taking has been available for free
separately for iPhones and iPads. People with Office 365 subscriptions will be
able to run the new app on up to five iPhones, in addition to the five Mac or
Windows computers. People in the United States will be able to get it from
Apple's app store Friday. Availability in other countries will follow in the
coming days. Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Wash., already makes a
version for phones running its Windows Phone 8 operating system. An Office 365
subscription isn't required for that, and those apps do not count toward the
five mobile devices permitted for each subscription.
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