As expected, new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the release of Microsoft Office for the iPad at a press event Thursday. Available are Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. You can download the apps for FREE, but the free version limits you to viewing documents created in those programs. If you want to create and/or edit documents, you'll need to subscribe to Microsoft's Office 365 service. Office 365 Home Premium is currently the lowest-cost option, at $9.99/month or $99.99 per year. It lets you install Office on up to 5 Macs or PCs and 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. 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 when it becomes available.
According to an early review on Macworld, the apps have been built for the iPad from the ground up. Microsoft has completely reconceptualized these software programs for a touch screen. The reviewer even prefers the iPad version of Office to the desktop version, saying it's better organized and more intuitive. Many features of the desktop version are there, such as track changes, but some features are missing.
So how do the apps compare to Apple's suite? Here's what the Macworld review has to say: "I think they’ve created a suite of 'free' apps as good or better than anything Apple has created."
You can also find an early review, with ample screenshots, on Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows. It includes a list of the features available in the free version. Bottom line: "It's the real deal, a full-featured set of Office apps that looks and works naturally on the iPad."
So what about the iPhone? According to iMore, the Office suite that's already been available for the iPhone doesn't compare to the quality of the iPad suite. And since the iPad suite is free, Microsoft Office Mobile is now also free.