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Microsoft Makes Office Mobile Editing Free As in Freemium

Posted by timothy on from the free-is-relative dept.

An anonymous reader writes Microsoft today announced a significant change to its Office strategy for mobile devices: creating and editing is now free. The company also released standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for the iPhone, as well a new preview of these apps for Android tablets. Starting today, whether you're using an Office app on Android or iOS, you can create and edit content without an Office 365 subscription. The company is pitching this move as "More of Office for everyone."

5 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. I am impressed by iamacat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The company is trying something new. It may or may not work out for them, but if they keep exploring, they are bound to find something that succeeds. That, and the effort to really understand user needs through Windows 10 preview, tells me that there may be some how for MS to capture back some of their former success.

    1. Re:I am impressed by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The company is trying something new. It may or may not work out for them, but if they keep exploring, they are bound to find something that succeeds.

      They're not trying something new. They're just trying to keep up with the free competing alternatives.

      ...for MS to capture back some of their former success.

      This strategy isn't going to win them any new marketshare. At best, it may prevent them from losing more marketshare.

      In either case, people will still think of Microsoft Office 365 as a paid-only service. Similar things happened with Hotmail and Bing. Eventually, Hotmail and Bing matched Gmail and Google in terms of quality of their features, but this change took so long to happen, it didn't improve their marketshare despite all the money they spent in marketing and advertising.

  2. Linus Torvalds won by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    'If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won.' -- Linus Torvalds

    1. Re:Linus Torvalds won by Kjella · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Hardcore neckbeards won't agree. Android, although it has a Linux kernel, and a substantial userbase, and is easy to use, won't count because it doesn't have GNU and X and you can't go "sudo apt-get Msoffice &make &make-install"

      Well, Linus never agreed that much with the FSF in the first place which is quite evident in many debates like over GPLv3. He wants to build the best kernel ever and if somebody else does something smart he'd like to study it and incorporate it into his project which is his interest in copyleft. Whether it's locked down for the end user to alter or not or if it's used to run open or closed source software isn't really any of his concern, while he picked GPL as his license he's never supported the four freedoms that RMS based it on. His ultimate victory would probably be more like Microsoft and Apple ditching their own kernel in favor of Linux so you'd have Windows/Linux, OS X/Linux, Android/Linux and GNU/Linux. Or really any variety that runs on top of his kernel.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  3. Required to stay relevant by merick · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't think this was so much of a desire to be innovative as it is to survive. With good-enough editors available on mobile devices, web services, and PCs, MS has to move down-market or risk entire new generations never using or needing their Office software.

    As it is, my daughter in middle-school has had some Office required assignments which prompted angry parent responses. I spoke with several other tech-oriented parents with kids at the school and none of them have MS Office at home. They all use either LibreOffice, OpenOffice or Apple's iWorks.

    Microsoft is battling obsolescence. This is a good attempt to reach a generation that doesn't know or care about them.