Microsoft Releases Office for iPad and Expands Cloud Services

Yesterday Microsoft released the long awaited version of the Microsoft Office Suite for iPad. Many individuals and small businesses who rely on their iPad for daily use and business use are excited to hear that it has finally arrived. And, from preliminary reviews, it is actually pretty good, unlike their earlier release of Office for the iPhone.

Now Office 365 users can simply add an iPad as one of their chosen devices included in their subscription and they will be able to create and edit documents with Word for iPad, PowerPoint for iPad and Excel for iPad. The iPad apps are available as free downloads from the App Store, however they will only allow people to read and present documents, spreadsheets and presentations, until they subscribe to the Office 365 service ($9.99 per month or $99.99 per year), at which time they will also be able to edit these documents, and create new documents, on their iPads.

The Office 365 subscription not only gets you the Office for iPad apps installed on up to 5 tablets, but also 5 copies of Office for your PCs and Macs. With one subscription all of your devices are covered, allowing more freedom for people so they are not chained to their desk to be productive.

At the same time Microsoft also announced the Enterprise Mobility Suite, a set of cloud services to help businesses manage corporate data and services on the devices people use at work and at home.

“Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. It’s a unique approach that centers on people — enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer for Microsoft.