Microsoft announced yesterday that it would finally be releasing its famous software suite, Office, on Apple's iPad tablet. In a move that's no doubt an effort push that new offering, they today have made the iPhone and Android Office apps entirely free.
The iPad version of Office will require an annual subscription, Microsoft's Office 365 service, which costs $99 per year. The app is free to download and can view files, but creating and editing documents requires the subscription. The iPhone and Android app, though, is both free to download and does not require Office 365.
Of course, most people won't want to do serious work on a four or five inch screen, but downloading such widely-used software for free to be hard to resist. As such, users may feel the need to use the software across all their devices, and this could lead to more Office 365 subscriptions. Either that, or people will do work on their phone and save it to Microsoft's cloud, which would require use of the Office software on other platforms.
Office 365 seems like something the average consumer may not want to pay for, but anyone who uses Office is paying for it somehow. Businesses may very well subscribe for employees, who can now use the software on other platforms as well. Having it for free on your phone is likely a very useful thing for most business people, even if they do most of their serious work on their PC, Mac, or tablet.
Source: The Verge