The wait is over for those who have desired Microsoft Office on their iPads for years: the company has announced it will be releasing the software for Apple's tablet. It's a risky move supporting the product of their direct competitor, but Microsoft is hoping the revenue and platform support it brings in will be worth it.
It's one of the fast major actions under new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who says the iPad port of the popular software is "a beautiful set of applications".
Apple has obviously won over many business professionals with the iPad, meaning Microsoft has lost many high-usage customers from both its hardware and software. This way, it can at least bring people back onto their service, even if they're using it on an iPad.
Office on iPad will be free to download, which grants you the ability to view documents, but not to edit or create them. In order to do that, you'll need to subscribe to their Office 365 program, which they are also running on Windows devices now as an online alternative to buying the regular software suite package. The apps for each program--Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote--will be available separately on the App Store for no charge.
Microsoft has a long road ahead of them in convincing most people to pay for this though, I would imagine. Those who have been using iPads to do work during this time have obviously found alternatives, many of which (such as Google Docs) are free and integrated into other services.
"We're an innovative company but we're coming from behind in some categories," said Nadella, "and if you look at the story of Windows, we lead in some and we have fallen behind in some. And we're grounded in that reality. So that means what we need to be is a challenger and be able to show what we are capable of doing."
"The real goal for us is to set up to provide the apps and services that empower every user across all of these devices and experiences," he added. "That's perhaps the job number one that we do: To empower people to be productive."
Source: CNET