“This is definitely not the Windows app ported to the iPad,” said White, adding that Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad are all native iOS apps. Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint apps are now available for download in the App Store, joining Microsoft’s existing OneNote for iPhone and iPad and the recently released OneNote for Mac.
Akin to Office 365 for iPhone which debuted last June, Office for iPad requires Microsoft’s Office 365 subscription for editing features. The entry-level subscription tier will set you back $9.99-per-month (or $99.99 per year) for a Home Premium package, which buys you access to the Office applications for Windows, Mac and mobile on up to five devices.
A more affordable Office 365 Personal has been announced recently ($6.99 per month, $69.99 per year, limited to just one PC or Mac, plus one tablet), but it’s not available just yet. You can sign up for a free 30-day Office 365 trial and for those who don’t want a subscription, Office for iPad will let you view and present Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations, but not edit the files…
“It’s a beautiful set of applications,” says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella “That’s our real commitment to Office 365, everywhere.”
Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad support standard Office files and integrates with Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage for syncing content across devices and platforms. Unfortunately, Dropbox, Google Drive and other popular cloud storage solutions are not supported.
Nadella said that a cool 3.5 million people are subscribed to consumer versions of Office 365.
Microsoft hasn't made Office apps for Android tablets yet, though the company has previously said those will be coming. Last year, Office apps for Android phones came out a month after the iPhone versions debuted.
"We are taking great focus and great care that Office on every device shines through," Nadella said.
That marks a change in sentiment for Microsoft.
Even as it became clear iPad was reshaping computing, Ballmer steadfastly resisted making an Office app for the device. He had been hoping that most of the 1 billion worldwide Office users would decide to buy Windows tablets instead of the iPad, but there was little evidence that was happening in significant numbers. Sales of Microsoft's own Windows tablet, Surface, turned out to be a huge letdown.
The Office app for the iPad has so many features designed for the device that Microsoft clearly was working on its design while Ballmer was still CEO, said Forrester Research analyst Rob Koplowitz.
But it didn't hit the market until Nadella took over and that could signal a "sea change," Koplowitz said. "I am hoping we are seeing something different in terms of how Microsoft operates as a company."
Nadella promised to show off more pieces of his "innovation agenda" for Windows next week at a software developers conference in San Francisco.
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