Last week Microsoft announced the release of Microsoft office for iPad, iPhone and Android and has made it free for home use. Microsoft is probably making this leap since Quick Office is a great alternative that is installed on Android’s KitKat and Apple provides iWork for free on all of it’s new devices. iPad users however will be considered “premium” users and will have to pay for edit capabilities. This seems like a step in the right direction for Microsoft but is it enough and are they showing up too late to the game? There are tons of free alternatives available on the app stores which everyone is already used to, this mobile app will have to offer a lot for users to make the switch.
After installing on the iPhone you are required to use a Microsoft account to log-in since this app is cloud connected. To be able to open existing documents, you must click on the open button and then add “a place” to be able to open your document from. Expecting to find other cloud services like Dropbox, Box, and others alike, I am disappointed to see you can only use the app with Microsoft services like OneDrive, Office 365SharePoint and SharePoint. Since I store most of my data on Dropbox or Box, it looks like my experiences with Office Mobile may be short-lived due to this shortfall alone.
The installation was attempted on my Nexus 7 device, but I was unable to find the application in the Google Play store. When browsing the application page via my computer’s web browser, Google Play tells me Microsoft Office Mobile is not compatible with any of my devices.
Well it appears that if you only use a smart phone, you can have Microsoft Office Mobile for free as long as you can handle its limitation of where you can open and save your files. Tablet users will be disappointed even further. Perhaps we will see more functionality and compatibility in the future, but for now I wouldn’t recommend wasting your time.