Microsoft's Office suite for iPad, iPhone, and Android is now free. In a surprise move, the software giant is shaking up its mobile Office strategy to keep consumers hooked to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. Starting today, you'll no longer need an Office 365 subscription to edit documents or store them in the cloud. The move comes just days after to integrate the cloud storage service into Office across desktop, mobile, and the web.
Oct 17, 2015 - Last month saw the release of Office 2016 by Microsoft. The venerable software has went through many changes over the decades, but the. There are multiple options for business users to get an Office 365 subscription. Single user and installation of Office 2016, or Office 365 Home for £8 a month which. Discover how to extend Office applications across platforms using Office Add-ins. Publish your Office Add-in, SharePoint Add-in, Microsoft Teams app, or Power BI custom visual in AppSource (formerly Office Store) and make it available within Office products.
You can now download Office for iPad and store all your documents on Dropbox without paying Microsoft anything at all. Microsoft is also releasing a, all with Dropbox integration.
Free mobile Office sounds crazy, but is it really? Microsoft's plans might sound crazy to most, and at first glance it's easy to come to that conclusion, but the company argues it's a matter of moving its free web apps to mobile.
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'It’s an extension of the strategy that we’ve got,' explains Microsoft's head of Office marketing Michael Atalla. 'It’s not a total strategic shift, as much of an extension of the existing strategy.' Microsoft offers free Office apps online, and Atalla argues that recent development model changes inside Microsoft have allowed the company to open up editing functionality to mobile clients. 'We’re taking that same user experience we provide online to the native apps of iOS and Android. We want to make sure that our customers can be productive across all the devices they have.' While consumers using Office mobile will be able to access the apps for free, Microsoft isn't extending this free functionality to businesses. An Office 365 subscription will be required to edit documents that are stored on OneDrive for Business or Dropbox for business, a clear sign of how Microsoft will continue to generate money from the thousands of businesses that rely on its productivity suite and cloud platform.
'There’s still premium value that we’ll add on top of that,' says Atalla. 'There will still be subscription value, most clearly and easily identifiable in the commercial space, but also in the consumer space around advanced authoring, analysis, presentation, and unlimited storage with OneDrive.' Microsoft is also restricting some chart element customization and track changes to paid customers, making them premium features. Microsoft wants to keep people hooked on Office The key here appears to be a strategic move by Microsoft to keep Office competition out of the mobile space.
It's all too easy for competitors to build rival products and ship them for free on iPad, iPhone, and Android, offering premium features on top. Microsoft's Office suite is dominant, which also means it's ripe for disruption. If there's a rival Office iPad app that's free and easy to use, that could tempt consumers away from their preconceived reliance on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint., a gesture-based app for editing Office documents, has seen some early success here. Apple also offers its own iWork apps on iPad at no extra cost, and several rivals, including the, are emerging to threaten Office on mobile. The nightmare situation for Microsoft is that consumers realize soon that they don't need Office to create their resume or personal documents, so why should they pay for it on a smartphone or tablet where they're used to getting free apps. While Microsoft will never admit it, it's that threat more than anything that has forced the company's mobile shift here. 'By in large we want that core authoring experience in front of all the users that love Office on any device they choose,' explains Atalla.
That core authoring experience can help keep Office users hooked, and Microsoft doesn't want to face a future where consumers, and eventually businesses, are no longer obsessing over Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. There's also a play here to get consumers using OneDrive cloud storage and a Microsoft Account.
Both of these can help Microsoft tempt consumers over to Office 365 for additional storage and the added benefit of Office for PC and Mac as part of a subscription. It's a bold move from Microsoft, but also a defensive one.
Microsoft's competition will now have to look elsewhere to plot their Office attack.
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With Office 365 subscription plans you can create your best work with the premium versions of the Office applications across all your devices: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access (Publisher and Access are available on PC only). You can install Office 365 across multiple devices, including PCs, Macs, Android™ tablets, Android phones, iPad®, and iPhone®. In addition, with Office 365 you get services like online storage with OneDrive, Skype minutes for home use, and advanced Outlook.com security. When you have an active Office 365 subscription, you always have the most up-to-date version of the Office applications.
Office 2019 is a one-time purchase with the classic versions of the Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for use on a single PC or Mac. The applications are not automatically updated; to get the latest version, you must purchase Office again when the new version becomes available. Current Office application versions available for one-time purchase are Office 2019 for Windows and Office 2019 for Mac. Previous versions include Office 2016, Office 2013, Office 2011 for Mac, Office 2010, Office 2007, Office 2008 for Mac, and Office 2004 for Mac. Office as a one-time purchase does not include any of the services included in Office 365. Learn more about the difference between Office 365 and Office 2019.
Internet access is required to install and activate all the latest releases of Office suites and all Office 365 subscription plans. For Office 365 plans, Internet access is also needed to manage your subscription account, for example to install Office on other PCs or to change billing options. Internet access is also required to access documents stored on OneDrive, unless you install the. You should also connect to the Internet regularly to keep your version of Office up to date and benefit from automatic upgrades. If you do not connect to the Internet at least every 31 days, your applications will go into reduced functionality mode, which means that you can view or print your documents, but cannot edit the documents or create new ones.
To reactivate your Office applications, simply reconnect to the Internet. Your Microsoft account is the combination of an email address and password that you use to sign in to services like Hotmail, OneDrive, Windows Phone, Xbox LIVE, and Outlook.com. If you use any of these services, you already have a Microsoft account that you can use, or you can create a new account. As part of signing up for a trial or purchasing Office, you will be prompted to sign in with a Microsoft account.
You must be signed in with this account to install and manage your Office software, or to use some subscription benefits, including OneDrive storage and Skype minutes. The amount of additional storage that you get depends on your subscription:. Customers with an active Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription receive an additional 1 TB of OneDrive storage per subscription. Customers with an active Office 365 Home subscription receive an additional 1 TB of OneDrive storage per user, for up to 6 users. Each additional user must have their own Microsoft account and be added to the.
The additional storage is applied to the OneDrive account that is linked to the Microsoft account used to create the Office 365 subscription. For Office 365 Home, the storage is tied to the Microsoft accounts of the household members who have been added to the subscription. Landlines only: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Colombia (excl. Lex), Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia (Jakarta), Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Venezuela. Is a four-year subscription for full- and part-time enrolled university and college students, faculty, and staff in accredited institutions.
Alumni of these institutions are ineligible. After purchasing Office 365 University at a participating retailer, you need to go online to verify your eligibility in order to activate Office. You are also subject to the and will be required to accept the agreement before activating the product. Internet access is required as the academic verification and redemption process occurs online. Note that you may be eligible for free Office through your university, school or college. Check your eligibility at before purchasing Office 365 University. Office 365 University is available in the following countries/regions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Vietnam.
Office 365 University will be available in each of the countries/regions listed as the new Office is released in that country/region. Your Microsoft account can only have one active subscription.
If you activate your Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription before your Office 365 Home subscription expires, the remaining time on your Office 365 Home subscription will be converted to the Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription (whichever you have chosen). You will immediately lose the Office 365 Home benefits of installing Office on multiple PCs/Macs, tablets, and phones, including Windows, iOS, and Android for Office 365 Personal. You may choose to wait until your Office 365 Home subscription expires before activating your Office 365 Personal or Office 365 University subscription so you do not lose installs. Your Microsoft account can have only one active subscription.
If you activate your Office 365 Personal subscription before your Office 365 University subscription expires, the remaining time on your Office 365 University subscription will be converted to Office 365 Personal. However, you will be allowed to install Office on only as many devices as your new subscription plan allows for—1 PC or Mac, plus 1 tablet and 1 phone for Office 365 Personal. You may choose to wait until your Office 365 University subscription expires before activating your Office 365 Personal so you do not lose installs.