Microsoft Office for iPad launches today, requires Office 365 subscription for editing

Posted:
in iPad edited April 2014
Microsoft on Thursday unveiled a long-awaited version of its Office suite for iPad, bringing productivity applications Word, Excel and PowerPoint to Apple's tablet lineup, requiring users to subscribe to its Office 365 service for editing documents.

Office for iPad


Microsoft was quick to emphasize at a media event in San Francisco on Thursday that the new Office for iPad was built from the ground up for Apple's platform. They showcased how documents can be synced to Microsoft's OneDrive cloud service.

Office for iPad will use what Microsoft referred to as a "freemium model," allowing users to install the app view documents, but requiring a subscription to Office 365 to make edits.

Office for iPad


A Thursday's event, Microsoft showed off Word, Excel and PowerPoint, all of which feature the company's trademark "ribbon" menu. Selecting items on the menu will pop up various options for styling and formatting.

Office for iPad


The apps also integrate with one another, as Microsoft showed how an Excel chart can be brought into Word for formatting on charts and images. Excel also features sparkline graphs and a custom keyboard for entering numbers.

Office for iPad


PowerPoint for iPad features transitions and animations between slides, while users can touch and hold on the screen to get a "laser pointer" type of dot on the screen while presenting.

Office for iPad is more full featured than its iPhone counterpart, and Microsoft has pledged full file support with the desktop versions of Office available for both Windows and Mac.




An Office 365 Home Premium subscription required for editing documents runs $99.99 for a full year commitment or $9.99 per month, and allows access on up to five PCs and Macs. Student subscriptions are also available for $79.99 for four years, and are accessible on up to two PCs and Macs. For enterprise users, small business plans start at $5 per user, per month, but access to the desktop versions of Office start at $12.50 per month.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 104

    So I have to 'pay' to edit documents? - might as well stick with iWorks then.

  • Reply 2 of 104
    j1h15233j1h15233 Posts: 274member

    Good move Microsoft. Make people pay for something they have already found ways to do without.

  • Reply 3 of 104
    dimmokdimmok Posts: 359member
    That Julia White is easy on the eyes
  • Reply 4 of 104
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Off course it will require a subscription. No way Microsoft was paying Apple 30% of anything.
  • Reply 5 of 104

    I'm really pleased about this.  I could just about get away with only taking an iPad with me when I travel, but for the fact that Numbers just doesn't meet my needs in the way Excel does (and, of course, Excel is pretty much the "standard" where I work).

     

    Now, if they would just improve Excel for Mac, to make it use multi-core processors, that would be a huge bonus too!

  • Reply 6 of 104

    Interesting move! I didn't know that Apple allows such things.

  • Reply 7 of 104

    Wow, an attractive woman introducing a new Microsoft product and not sweat-soaked Ballmer running around the stage screaming like an unhinged orangutan???

     

    **head explodes**

  • Reply 8 of 104

    I wonder if women (or gay men for that matter) feel the need to comment on the attractiveness or otherwise of Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook et al when they do product introductions?

     

    The tech world has a long way to go with its treatment of women.......

  • Reply 9 of 104
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by PaulMJohnson View Post

     

    I wonder if women (or gay men for that matter) feel the need to comment on the attractiveness or otherwise of Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook et al when they do product introductions?

     

    The tech world has a long way to go with its treatment of women.......




    If I were a woman (which I'm not), I'd much rather see an attractive man present a new product than Crazy Uncle Ballmer.

     

    As a man, I'd much rather see an attractive woman present a new product than Crazy Uncle Ballmer.

     

    Also, as a man, I'd much rather see an attractive man present a new product than Crazy Uncle Ballmer.

     

    I hope we're not going to turn this into a giant debate about sexism because someone called someone else attractive?  :rolleyes: 

  • Reply 10 of 104
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DarenDino View Post

     

    So I have to 'pay' to edit documents? - might as well stick with iWorks then.


    It's called 'iWork' and that would still be the case even if it were Free.

  • Reply 11 of 104
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Just watched the livestream, good presentation. Nadella is such a massive step up from Ballmer. I like the new approach they're taking. I probably won't subscribe to it, but office on the iPad looks very powerful, well thought out, and user friendly. Kudos to them. This pretty much eliminates the #1 bullet point against the iPad, and for Windows Tablets- No Office. Even if noone here wants to admit it, this is pretty major.

    Notice they didnt reveal an Android version, and likely never will.
  • Reply 12 of 104
    lightknightlightknight Posts: 2,312member
    So over three years, it's actually more expensive than Office used to be. For Enterprise. Nicely done, MS.
  • Reply 13 of 104
    MS is not a choice nor a good solution for us biz guys. It is second best. So, I am not using it because the one cloud chain.
  • Reply 14 of 104
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member

    This sucks.  I'd like to have Office on my iPad / iPhone, but I'm not about to spend money every month in order to have the "honor" of editing documents.  They will not have my sale.  Give me a fixed price and it's mine to use.  Subscription-based software for something that is still a very core item for the enterprise is just not cool.



    Thanks, but no thanks.  I'll stick with my Office 2010 (Windows) and Office 2011 (Mac) for the very long foreseeable future.  Microsoft is really shooting itself in the foot with this.  It's no wonder their bread-and-butter software (Windows 8, Office 365) is on the decline.

  • Reply 15 of 104
    jamieljamiel Posts: 20member

    Relax Paul. They comment about women in tech because they are as elusive as unicorns.

  • Reply 16 of 104
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    darendino wrote: »
    So I have to 'pay' to edit documents? - might as well stick with iWorks then.
    Yep

    I really hope that this stupidity flops for Microsoft. It wouldn't take much more than a couple of years to waste a lot of money with this garbage. In a nut shell $99 a year is a ripoff for software.
  • Reply 17 of 104
    seankillseankill Posts: 566member
    About time. I'd be instantly in but I don't want to pay a subscription yet. I have a 2010 license for my MacBook (windows) and I love it as is. Will be 5 years before I switch to subscription.
  • Reply 18 of 104
    msimpsonmsimpson Posts: 452member

    "The first hit of crack is free"

     

    Microsoft always loves the "subscription model"  where they get those regular monthly or annual payments to keep there hooks into and get that regular revenue stream.  They are not the only company that thinks that way - it has become very popular.

     

    Personally I don't want a product that requires me to put all my documents up in "the Cloud" on someone else's servers.   It seems harder and harder to find tools that do not require you to be "connected" and give someone else all your data.  

     

    Not interested.  

  • Reply 19 of 104
    The only bad part about this is the fact that it is Microsoft. For a company that waited far too long to even bring it to iPad, why would I use the app, knowing that there is a chance it won't be fully supported or updated for that matter.

    I hope rather that I'm wrong and they've finally figured out cross-platform.
  • Reply 20 of 104
    Too late Microsoft, I use iWork and don't need any more softwares. It is a silly idea to pay for a subscription.
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