Microsoft Offers Free Office Suite for iOS and Android Users, Office 365 Subscription Note Required
Microsoft has made its Office suite for the iPad, iPhone, and Android free to download. Additionally, Office users no longer need an Office 365 subscription to create, edit and store documents on the cloud.
The free offer comes a few days after Microsoft had announced its partnership with Dropbox, where it will integrate its cloud storage service into Office across desktops, mobile devices, and on the web. With the Dropbox integration and free Office suite, users can now use their mobile devices to create, view, and edit documents without the need for an Office 365 subscription.
Still, this doesn't mean that an Office 365 subscription is irrelevant. The free version of the Office suite will include basic editing tools for Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint but advanced editing tools will stay locked with a subscription.
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OneDrive won't also be completely irrelevant as it will provide its storage services to those who subscribe to Office 365. Free users will be using Dropbox to store their documents. This makes sense as instead of cutting off services to a popular cloud-based storage service like Dropbox, integrating it allows Microsoft to reach out to more consumers especially in the mobile ecosystem.
"Today Office and Dropbox work really well together on the desktop but people have multiple devices and need to have access to productivity tools everywhere," says Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Office 365 client applications.
"This is an extension into the mobile space," he adds.
