Microsoft Launches Touch-Friendly Office Universal Apps For Mobile Devices
Last Friday, Microsoft unveiled the much awaited for Microsoft Office suite customized for use on touch-screen devices. Now, Windows phone users can easily use Ms-Word, -Excel and –PowerPoint on their smartphones with a lot of ease using the touch commands. The new suite is also customized to favor cloud computing thus allowing users to work on the same project across different devices and locations.
The new suite dubbed Office Universal is currently in beta. Users can now download the app, but the full version is expected to be available by the end of the month. Windows phone users who have been wishing to use the Microsoft Office on their Windows Phone devices can now easily use this app on their touch-enabled devices. The suite is said to adapt to the device’s looks and will automatically determine if the device being used is a tablet or a smartphone.
Microsoft in an unprecedented move has also made the apps available for touch-screen devices on its competitors’ platform; the apps are also available on Android and iOS devices. The reason behind this is the fact that its competitors especially Android, currently dominate the cloud computing platform. Thus, serving as a better market for its Office Universal Apps created to disrupt the cloud computing platform.
The Office Universal Apps basic features will be available to everyone for free. But for the advanced editing features, users are required to pay a subscription fee to the Office 365, the cloud-based version of the Microsoft Office. The company is said to be working on releasing a desktop PC version later this year.