Microsoft had to change its management in order to catch up with the mobile device era. They’ve just announced that they will give away for free their Office apps to iPhones and iPads. The free Office apps include Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This comes as a very pleasant surprise because previously, if one wanted to enjoy the full features of the Office apps had to pay $119 per year or $12 a month, for Australian users. The users had to install the cloud-delivered Office 365. The free Office apps will be available for Android devices early next year.
Microsoft’s free Office apps require a Microsoft account in order to be able to use them. If you don’t have a Microsoft account and you want to create one, you need to have a valid email address and a password, and to type in those annoying CAPTCHA letters and numbers.
After signing in you can enjoy the free Office apps and all its features. The free versions of Office apps do not have all the features that the Office 365 have, like being able to switch between landscapes and portrait views, but most features are the same.
Microsoft announced another good deal last week: the deal with Dropbox that allows its users to store their files in Dropbox right from their Office apps. The Microsoft-Dropbox deal might sound a tad strange, considering the fact that Microsoft’s cloud storage OneDrive is Dropbox’s competitor, but they most certainly know what they are doing.
The user who pay for Office 365 receive a terabyte of OneDrive storage for free, while users of the new free Office apps for iPad and iPhone will get only 15 gigabytes, plus 2GB from Dropbox.
The new initiative of offering free Office apps belongs to Microsoft’s new boss Satya Nadella, who replaced Steve Ballmer in February. Before Nadella there weren’t any free software coming from Microsoft. But with the rise of the smartphones, the tech world has changed dramatically in the last few years so tech companies better adapt or move away. The new Microsoft president seems to be aware of this so that’s why he’s giving free Office apps.
