The mobile community has waited a long time for Microsoft Office to finally begin supporting devices other than the Redmond’s own range, and today, the launch of the famed productivity suite on Android begins. Although there’s not yet any support for Android tablets, the smartphone community on Google’s mobile OS can today enjoy Office on their handsets, provided they’re running Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. Details after the break.
Microsoft has been working for quite a while on broadening its horizons with the popular Office group of applications, and with a rollout for iOS having already begun in the past few months in the form of Office Mobile for iPhone, the Play Store is now seeing its first taster of one of the software maker’s most famed products.
For those wondering, Office for Android smartphones is almost a straight port of Office for iPhone, boasting a very similar interface and set of tools out of the box. To get started, you will, of course, need to activate your Office 365 subscription and from there, you can begin viewing and editing your documents on-the-fly.
Unfortunately, there’s no free, read-only version, so if you do wish to use Office on your Android smartphone, you will need to pony up for the subscription.
Since Office is of infinitely more use on a tablet, at least from the point of view of productivity if not convenience, let’s hope it hits the Play Store sooner rather than later. Same goes for the iPad version.
Editing on the Android version of Office is quite limited at the moment, with most of your formatting non-existent beyond the bare bones. Then again, the purpose of the mobile versions are to help users make quick corrections when they’re away from the computer and besides, future improvements are likely to bring a more recognized experience to the smaller screen.
Office for Android now available over at the Google Play Store for those residing in the United States, and will rollout to other countries in due course.
(Download: Office for Android on the Play Store)
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