An official Microsoft Office Mobile app for iOS has been released and is available to download via iTunes now, depending upon your region. The suite of apps includes Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You can view and edit Microsoft Office files created using these programs using the new app on your iPhone.
This mobile Office app goes by the full name of ‘Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers’ and the first line in Microsoft’s description states “Please note: An Office 365 subscription is required to use this app.” Despite this the 58MB app garners many low ratings for requiring a subscription. If you aren’t already an Office 365 subscriber you can become one using an in-app purchase, a subscription costs about £10 a month but the top in-app purchase at this time is a year’s subscription for US$100. If you buy in-app then Apple will get a cut of Micmrosoft's income from the sale, which may be as high as 30 per cent.
The new Office Mobile app is a rather stripped down affair and is squarely aimed at iPhone rather than iPad use. “Word, Excel and PowerPoint have been optimized for the small screen of your phone.” iPad users are recommended to use Microsoft’s web apps.
Microsoft describes the new app as follows, “Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your iPhone. You can access, view and edit your Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere. Documents look like the originals, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you make quick edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and content remain intact.”
If you have even used Microsoft Windows Phone 7.X or 8 then you already know a lot about how the Apple iOS version works. In fact, ZDNet reports that; Office Mobile for iPhone and Windows Phone have the exact same functionality. However on Windows Phone there is no Office 365 subscription requirement. The ZDNet reporter says there are several more complete office apps available for iOS users but the new Mobile Office app “is well designed for basic editing of existing documents without destroying the original document format and design”.
The service is currently only live in the US but will be rolled out across 136 different markets and in 29 languages in the coming days.
