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Microsoft Office Finally Gets iOS App

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-exactly-peanut-butter-and-jelly dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After years of rumors and months of bickering with Apple over revenue splits, Microsoft has finally released an official iOS app for Office 365 subscribers, allowing people to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint on their iPhones and iPads. According to a hands-on report with the software, the Office app has basic functionality, but is missing some key productivity features. 'These include: font options, text alignment, bulleted lists and, again, more color choices, all of which you can find in, say, the Google Drive app.' They say it's a fairly useful addition for current subscribers, but certainly not enough to make it worth the Office 365 subscription fee on its own. 'We can't tell if Microsoft deliberately handicapped Office Mobile for iPhone, or if it's simply saving some features for a later update. (A company rep declined to comment on what we can expect from future versions.) We're willing to believe Microsoft still has some unfinished items on its to-do list, but even so, it's a shame that iPhone users waited this long for an Office app, only to get something with such a minimal feature set. All told, Office Mobile represents a good enough start for Microsoft, and in some ways it's better than Google Drive, particularly where spreadsheets are concerned. Still, it's miles behind other office apps for iOS, including Apple iWork.'"

4 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > missing some key productivity features. 'These include: font options, text alignment, bulleted lists

    Is it a joke?

  2. Come on MS by readingaccount · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No iPad support, which is arguably the largest use case scenario.
    You have to subscribe to Office 365.
    You can't just buy it in the app store.

    I honestly can't come up with a way they could have fucked this up any more. Once again MS snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

    1. Re:Come on MS by homsar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If they put it on iPad they lose their main "advantage" of Windows tablets over iPads—that they run Office.

  3. Re:No iPad app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    They could easily release an iPad app without paying Apple the 30% - they just make the app require an Office 365 account. Done. Sign up for the account online, go back to the app, done.

    They only have to pay Apple the 30% _IF_ users can sign up for the account _IN_ the app. If they do so via a web browser, on their own, it allows the developer to avoid the 30% cut to Apple.

    Please do try to understand how the process works before offering your opinion on it.