Microsoft's stock jumped 5 percent Tuesday on the rumor that Office for iPad will be arriving March 27. There had been rumors that the suite was ready, and that it would be coming this month. Given that new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be hosting a media event scheduled for March 27, many are expecting him to introduce Office for iPad. Both The Verge and ZDNet have reported that their inside sources have confirmed that Office will be arriving this month. According to rumors, the suite for the iPad will include the ability to create and edit documents in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. How much will it cost? It's a free download, but you'll need a subscription to Office 365. For example, Office 365 Home Premium costs $99.99 per year. It lets you install Office on up to 5 Macs or PCs and on up to 5 mobile devices. In addition, a subscription comes with 20GB of OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) cloud storage and 60 minutes of Skype calls per month. According to a separate article on ZDNet, Microsoft also recently announced Office 365 Personal, which will let you install Office on a PC or Mac and on one tablet. The price will be $69.99 per year, or $6.99 per month. I believe that in every case Microsoft offers a free trial subscription.
Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers has been available for the iPhone since last June. As the name implies, it too requires a subscription.
According to The Verge, CEO Nadella will likely use the event to discuss Microsoft's "mobile first, cloud first" strategy. In the announcement, Microsoft said event would be "focused on the intersection of cloud and mobile computing."
Frankly, I dislike the fact that Microsoft and Adobe have moved to this subscription model. It seems obvious to me that it's much more expensive in the long run, especially if you're someone who's happy to use a version of Microsoft's suite for more than a few years. The advantage is that you can install it on multiple devices and that the software is always up to date. But for me, it will be more expensive. I'm going to continue using my purchased copies of Office and Adobe Creative Suite for as long as I can. And for this reason alone, I'm going to pass on Office for the iPad.
Still, I'm glad to see that they're making Office available on the iPad and that they're developing their software for iOS devices. It's interesting that they'll be coming out with the iOS version even before they come out with a version of Office for Windows 8.1.