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Microsoft Brings Office To Android Smartphones For Free

Posted by samzenpus on from the coming-together dept.

Mark Wilson writes: After a few weeks in preview, Microsoft Office is now available for Android smartphones. Despite Microsoft's mobile-first, cloud-first philosophy, it has actually taken some time to bring the world's most popular office suite to Android phones — it joins the tablet version of the suite that was released last year. Just like the tablet editions, the phone versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint won't cost you a penny, allowing for the viewing and editing of a range of files when on the move. There is a cloud focus with support for not only OneDrive, but also Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box, and Microsoft says it has made changes based on the feedback received during the preview period.

13 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. 104Mb by ledow · · Score: 4, Informative

    104Mb download just for Word on its own.

    Wow. Seems like all those years of bloated coding are coming back to bite them.

    Install office with very limited use on a mobile, and you lose half a Gig of internal storage on your smartphone and still might have to pay for an Office 365 subscription.

    1. Re:104Mb by spire3661 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I would like to point out Windows 8.1 can run on a 16 GB partition with 1 GB of ram. Further, MS has historically always pushed hardware.

      What intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away

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      Good-bye
    2. Re:104Mb by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Funny

      Thank God! Can you imagine how big the binary would have to be with all those statically linked .NET libraries?

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      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:104Mb by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why would I want to use either on a phone or smaller tablet?

      That's really the point here. Full-pop word processors are not only going to take up huge amounts of limited flash storage and RAM, but they aren't even necessary.

      I use Google's document, spreadsheet and slideshow offerings on my Nexus 5 and Nexus 7. They don't render every aspect of an Office document, though they are getting a lot better (Excel charts display pretty well in Sheets), but I'm really just looking for "good enough", in this case mainly reading, and maybe a very small amount of notation or editing. I'll go to my PC or notebook if I actually want to full blown spreadsheet work or composition. Even with a fully functional version of Word available for my smart devices, I wouldn't pay for the functionality because I'm not a masochist.

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      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:104Mb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      What do you mean, "smaller"? Apple's Write for iOS is over 200Mb.

    5. Re:104Mb by JamesTRexx · · Score: 4, Informative

      Windows 8.1 can run on a 16 GB partition with 1 GB of ram

      Debian testing, Libreoffice, Eclipse, GIMP, Iceweasel, a whole bunch of other programs and utilities; 10G used on disk (including 2.3G home directory), about 1G RAM actively used of 3, the rest is cache.

      No matter how you look at it, Microsoft has never been in the lean and mean camp. Neither with OS nor Office, database, virtualisation software.
      Maybe open source development fosters a more efficient use of hardware by its nature?

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      home
  2. Re:Free? by ledow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Limited functionality unless you have an Office 365 account you can sign into to unlock all the features.

  3. Even more ways to destroy my files! by damn_registrars · · Score: 5, Funny

    Considering how poorly files move between different versions of Office for the same platform (and some times even between the same version for the same platform!) I look forward to now being able to trash my files on the go. Thank you Microsoft, I have been wishing for some time that you would find a way to make my files even more fragile yet.

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  4. Re:Free? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or Office for that matter.

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  5. Google Docs... by DarthVain · · Score: 3, Informative

    Or you could just use Google Docs in your browser. Unsurprisingly also supports Google Drive.

    So MS makes a pointless app, and makes it free!

  6. Re:Free? by muirhead · · Score: 3, Informative

    I've installed it to edit my CV. Most features are there, and I could open and edit a new blank doc. You need a Microsoft account to sign on, but an Office 365 subscription isn't needed. Who going to be worried about tracked changes whilst using a tablet?

  7. Re:Free? by bondsbw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not correct.

    You might need to learn the difference between "Not correct" and "Pretty much exactly what you said, but I don't like it so I'm going to make a big deal where such is not warranted".

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    All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  8. Re:Google should move on by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's odd. I can use Google Drive, create documents and spreadsheets on all the above platforms, download them in multiple formats and edit them on other platforms.

    Why would I pay Microsoft money for that which I can already do?

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    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.