In a rather surprising move, Microsoft has made the Office suite of apps — Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — free to download and use on the iPad and iPhone. Previously, an Office 365 subscription was required — but now, unless you’re a business customer or after some advanced functionality, you can now open and edit Office docs, spreadsheets, and slideshows for free on your iOS device. If all that wasn’t exciting enough, Microsoft also announced that the free Office suite is coming to Android, with beta access starting today.
Both the iOS and Android versions of the Office suite have Dropbox integration baked in, following the announcement of a strategic partnership between the two companies earlier this week. At first glance, it seems odd that Microsoft would give away one of its most lucrative products for free — but don’t worry, it all makes perfect business sense. For most of Microsoft’s life, a huge portion of its profits were derived from sales of the Office suite. Office, much like Windows, was the de facto productivity suite — it was installed on almost every home, school, and work machine. For the longest time, the various Office apps produced file formats that could only be viewed and edited by Office apps — and so it was almost impossible for alternatives to establish a beachhead.
However, as the world’s reliance on Windows has diminished — as people move to smartphones, tablets, Chromebooks, and myriad other form factors — Microsoft has been forced to embrace other platforms, adopt open file formats, and generally reassess its strategy.
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