Rumors of Microsoft office coming to mobile have been circulating for a quite a while, but we’ve never seen final confirmation of it and when it is coming to the market. According to The Verge and its sources, the app is scheduled to release in early 2013. This could prove to be some fantastic news for fans of Microsoft Office with Android (and other OS) smartphones.
Besides this rumor, there have been some pretty concrete reports of Office coming to mobile. There was the press release from Czech Republic subsidiary of Microsoft that revealed the apps would be available in March 2013. It looks like the Android version is actually going to come out in May 2013, but we shall wait and see on a final release date. When Microsoft was contacted by The Verge for a statement, the response was, “Office will work across Windows Phone, iOS and Android.”
The apps are reported to be available for free for viewing documents and spreadsheets. If you are interested in editing documents, you will need an Office 365 subscription. With the iOS version of the app, you will be able to buy an Office 365 subscription, but for the Android version, it looks like you will need to sign up outside of the app to get access to the editing features.
Even with the editing features added from an Office 365 subscription, it doesn’t look like these apps are designed to replace the desktop versions of Office. Rather, they are simply designed for basic editing functions as a companion to the desktop software. Still, it looks like it could be quite the useful app that will be worth checking out if and when it hits Google Play.
[via The Verge]
I wonder what MSFT has planned to make Office different from Google Drive, which essentially does the same thing. Maybe MSFT’s too little too late again.