<a href="https://twitter.com/harrymccracken/status/593459473173204992" target="_blank">via Harry McCracken</a>
It was hard to miss the iPhone 6 and iPad Air on stage during the beginning of Microsoft’s BUILD conference for developers. It turns out the Apple devices were used to demo a new feature coming to Office for iPhone and iPad called add-ins… Expand Expanding Close
Following updates today for Microsoft’s Office suite of apps for iPad, users can now purchase monthly subscriptions to Office 365, the service required for access to full editing features.
So starting today, you can buy a monthly subscription to Office 365 from within Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad. You can choose between Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home. Office 365 Personal is designed to help individuals who want to use Office on one PC or Mac and one tablet, while Office 365 Home is for households with up to five PCs or Macs, plus five tablets.
The monthly subscriptions are now available to purchase directly in the app for $6.99/month for the Personal plan and $9.99/month for Home. Microsoft added that “if you buy a monthly subscription on your iPad, you can switch to an annual subscription from your iPad, or from iTunes on your PC or Mac.” Yearly subscriptions to Office 365 offer savings over the monthly plans and are available for $69/year (Personal) and $99/year (Home).
Microsoft offered a chart showing what each of the plans get you within the Office apps vs free features:
As Microsoft continues its Office for iPad marketing campaign, the team that developed the productivity software has taken to Reddit for an AMA, or Ask Me Anything, to answer questions and discuss the development process behind Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad. By measure of upvotes, the most popular question as of the time of this writing asked when Office for iPad would gain the ability to print, something Apple’s iWork suite and many of apps already offer, to which the team replied “in due course” while noting the high demand of the feature.
But the team didn’t stop there; Microsoft’s Office for iPad team also shared photos of their lab (as seen in the above photo), talked about the development process for bringing Office to the iPad, and even addressed the notion that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer held Office back from the iPad… Expand Expanding Close
Now that the company has accepted the inevitable, that most people would rather have Office on their iPad than buy a Surface, the question is: was it worth the wait … ? Expand Expanding Close
Sure, you could argue that Microsoft’s shiny new Office apps for iPad are only ranking so well because they’re freemium apps since they’re listed for free but require a subscription to fully function, but they are taking up the top four spots nonetheless. Expand Expanding Close
In what seems like a neverendingstory, retiring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced that the company plans to introduce a touch optimized version of Microsoft Office to iPad customers (via The Verge) after it completes development.
Microsoft plans to first deliver the tablet version of its productivity suite to the Microsoft Surface, its tablet competitor to the iPad, but this is the first we have heard of such plans. Expand Expanding Close
Reports claimed last week that an iPad version of Microsoft Office would launch in November, following several reports from The Daily, which claimed Microsoft is readying the app and posted the alleged spy shots above. Today, The Daily weighed in again by offering an exact launch date of Nov. 10:
Microsoft will launch Office for iPad on Nov. 10, The Daily has learned. This follows reports earlier this month that a late fall release was likely… We’ve learned that the development team within Office Mobile finished its work on the project last month, and the efforts of the design group wrapped soon after. The app is now in the hands of a usability team that appraises software that utilizes the Metro design language for “Metro compliance” and suggests changes as needed. When approved by the team, the app likely will go to Apple for app store approval, which could take a couple of weeks.
Update: Whooooaaaaa…hold your horses. Microsoft says it ain’t so:
A Microsoft spokeswoman issued this statement: “The Daily story is based on inaccurate rumors and speculation. We have no further comment.”
Corroborating earlier reports, Rupert Murdoch’s tablet-only magazine The Dailyapparently saw a work-in-progress version of Microsoft’s native Office app for iPad, and the publication posted the above screenshot to prove it exists. The Daily’s first impressions?
The app’s user interface is similar to the current OneNote app, but it has hints of Metro, the new design language that can be seen in Windows Phone and in the as-yet-released Windows 8 desktop operating system. Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited locally and online.
According to unnamed sources, the team wrapped up the project and will soon submit the app for approval. An Android version of Office is not in the works, “sources familiar with the matter” said, but the Windows maker is putting the finishing touches on the new OneNote iOS app said to sport the Metro user-interface overhaul. When Office for iPad finally arrives, it will compete with the likes of Documents to Go, Quickoffice and Apple’s own Pages, Keynote and Numbers apps, which at $9.99 each might be hard to beat.
