Microsoft Introduces Office App For The iPhone - But No iPad App [Updates] - MakeUseOf

No, it isn’t April Fools Day, and no Steve Ballmer hasn’t gone totally insane and switched to the Dark Side Of The Net. Microsoft really has introduced an iOS app for Office, but there’s a catch – to use it, you need a paid Office 365 subscription. Now there’s the Microsoft we all know and love – the money-obsessed company that would cough up a lung if they were asked to give away something free.

Now, before you Office 365 subscribers & iPhone users go happily hippity-hoppity over to iTunes to download the new app, there are two other caveats. Firstly, it is currently restricted to the United States (although there are ways around that), and secondly there is not yet a version for the iPad. Assuming you are an American-based iPhone user and Office 365 subscriber, then you are cleared for take-off. The rest of you – boo hoo and life sucks.

According to The Verge, the app has support for Word, Excel and Powerpoint. For Word and Excel, you can both view files and create new ones. But with Powerpoint, it’s only possible to view existing files only, no creating.

The one question I am asking – and I am sure many of you are also asking the same thing – if Google Drive allows you to access and create documents, presentations and spreadsheets in Microsoft Office format … why do we need this exactly? Bearing this in mind, you might want to rethink your paid Office 365 subscriber-only policy, Microsoft. Otherwise this app is going to sink faster than a submarine with the hatch left open.

Will you be using Microsoft Office on your iPhone? Are you looking forward to the iPad version? Why / Why not?

Source: The Verge