Microsoft offers Office apps free for iPhone, iPad users

Microsoft’s announcement Thursday that a basic version of the Office franchise will be free to mobile customers is the company’s latest adjustment to the changing computing landscape.

Beginning Thursday, users of iPhones and iPads can create and edit Office documents without a subscription to Microsoft’s paid Office 365 service, the company said. Similar service for use in Google’s Android tablets is available in a preview version now, and is expected to be formally rolled out early next year.

The move is the latest sign of a shift in Microsoft strategy, as the Redmond company tries to keep customers hooked on its software even as they use tablets and smartphones with operating systems made by rivals.
Microsoft broke with longstanding tradition in March, announcing it would make the Office suite of word processing and productivity software available for the first time on Apple’s iPad. That was followed in April by Microsoft’s move to stop charging hardware makers that want to install Windows on some tablets and smartphones.

On Tuesday, the company said it was partnering with online storage provider Dropbox to allow Office users to store their files on Dropbox servers. Dropbox is a competitor to Microsoft’s own online storage offering, OneDrive.

“Microsoft is feeling the pressure” from competitors that offer no-charge office productivity and other software, said Wes Miller, an analyst with independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. “As people are getting tablets and smartphones, they’re trying to make sure that the tools you’re using are Microsoft’s.”

Microsoft Office has plenty of free competition, including Apple’s Pages and Google’s Docs.

Microsoft’s hope, Miller said, is that users will like free Office features so much that they opt to upgrade to the paid version, or buy other Microsoft offerings, such as online storage or Office for their workplace.

For decades, Microsoft had given priority to developing software for its flagship Windows platform, which powered most of the world’s PCs. But as PC sales slumped, and with consumers turning to mobile devices powered with Google or Apple operating systems, Microsoft has pivoted toward more readily offering its software on other platforms.

“The old mindset was Windows and Office are so familiar, and so important, and so dominant that you are going to drop that iPhone and that Android smartphone in order to embrace Office on Windows phone,” said Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Well, that didn’t happen.”

Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has said the company will emphasize serving a technology-using public that increasingly accesses products on a variety of mobile devices and the Internet, rather than on PC-installed software.

Microsoft’s move “proves the point that it’s a much broader computing world out there” than it used to be, said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners. “It shows a push toward increased openness from Microsoft.”

Office won’t be completely free to use on mobile devices, however. Users who want to create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on laptops or PCs will still have to pay for access, as will business clients, who make up the bulk of Microsoft’s Office revenue.

The company says not all Office features will make the jump to the free mobile apps. Users who want to track editing changes in Word or create pivot tables to analyze data in Excel will still have to buy Office 365. That product’s consumer edition, which charges users subscription fees for versions of Office, had about 7 million subscribers at the end of September. Annual subscriptions range from $70 and $100 a year, depending on which version users opt for.

Analysts said giving consumers free limited versions of Office products was unlikely to significantly curb the revenue Microsoft earns from Office, a longtime cash cow.

“What Microsoft is trying to do is make sure that Office doesn’t become the clunky stuff that you use at work and ignore when you go home,” said Forrester’s Gillett. Microsoft “realized that we have to be where our customers are. Because if we’re not, we’re losing a generation of relationships with consumers.’”