FollowThe usage of Microsoft Office is not just restricted to desktops, laptops and Windows Phone OS enabled devices but now Microsoft had announced the arrival of Office Mobile app to the Android smartphones and tablets. The Office Mobile app is available over the Google Play store and can be downloaded for free.
Even though the app is available for free download but there is a slight catch for the users, only those users that have subscribed for Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium and ProPlus service will be able to download the app and use it.
According to Guy Gilbert who is the senior product manager with Microsoft that by exclusively offering Office Mobile to the Office 365 subscribers, the company wants to show that they are committed towards offering value added service to Office 365 Home Premium and ProPlus subscribers.
When you download and install the Office Mobile app, you will be able to access applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint. At present, these programs do not allow users to create new documents or spreadsheets or presentations. It only allows users to edit the existing files. It also allows you to share files with others.
A good thing about the Office Mobile app is that it allows Office 365 subscribers to access files on their devices like smartphones and tablets from where they had left off on their desktop or laptop. As we can guess, the files accessed with the Office Mobile app will synchronize with Microsoft SkyDrive cloud storage service.
The Office 365 suite can be purchased at $100 a year. By purchasing the suite, users can install all the apps from the Office suite on up to five devices like desktops, MAC PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Those numbers varies for student and business account holders.
We all know that Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are currently ruling the world of handheld devices. By offering the widely used Microsoft Office on other mobile phone operating systems, Microsoft is making good efforts to hold on to market share in the mobile phone world. At present, the Office app comes preloaded on Windows Phone OS powered smartphones.
The Office app for Android OS currently only works on smartphones. Android tablet and iPad users do not support the newly released Office app which means these users will not be download the official app from the Google Play store. Tablet users can access Microsoft Office through web edition of MS Office. Only smartphones running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS or higher supports the Office Mobile app.
The news of the arrival of Android version of Office comes after the arrival of Office for iOS which happened in June. Like the Android edition, even iOS edition of Office is only available for Office 365 subscribers. The only difference between the Android and iOS Office app is that latter allows users to purchase subscription to Office.
The SkyDrive is the default location for saving documents. Those who are subscribed to Office 365 are entitled to receive 20GB of storage space. At present, the Office Mobile has been launched only in United States. Microsoft has confirmed that in ‘several weeks’ the Office Mobile app will be made available in various countries
