A Microsoft Office Suite for Android and iOS has been rumored for quite some time, but the Redmond company has largely been quiet regarding rumors of it making Office applications for competing mobile platforms. However, The Verge has now acquired through “several sources close to Microsoft’s plans” some leaked screenshots of Microsoft Office apps running on an iPhone, as well as information about an early 2013 release.
According to the report, the Office apps will have free versions, but they won’t do much more than allow users to view documents and presentations. A Microsoft login will be required, along with an Office 365 subscription, to unlock basic editing functionality in the apps. Even then, it is said that the apps won’t come close to either the desktop or Windows Phone 8 versions.
The apps are said to be scheduled for release in late February or early March of 2013 for the iOS version, and May for the Android version. Although there are a plethora of other mobile office applications such as Google Drive, Pages, Documents To Go, Quickoffice, and others, there are bound to be users who require or prefer Microsoft’s official offering. Still, even though the interface looks quite good, if it is as thin on features as this report suggests, I don’t expect it to be anywhere near as popular as other document editing options.
Your rite about the last comment. If I can’t edit why would I even search for the app in the Play Store.
A 365 subscription?
Make it a purchase in the Apple App Store and have it compatible with Dropbox and THEN I might think about buying it for iOS on iPad and iPhone for a max of $15/app. Until that time, I am happy with my Mac OSX version of Office.
If these are anything like the OneNote app for Android, they will be largely useless. Why even bother? Android has decent document viewers built in already.
I think the big thing is that it will preserve document formatting. I’ve had other document viewers/editors mess up files more times than I can count.
if it does not have the ability to use standard functions for excel then it is useless to me. I already cant use documents to go on my spreed sheets due to functions not being supported. Whats the POINT!
I wouldn’t call this Microsoft office…
more like MicroSh!t office