Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint now available on iOS

There are now separate Word, Excel, and Powerpoint apps available for download in the App Store, for iPad only. The downloads themselves are completely free, but they only include read access to files. You can’t create anything new, nor can you edit existing docs without paying. To get access to the features you actually want, an Office 365 subscription is required. You can either purchase that from Microsoft directly, or via an in-app purchase for $99 per year. Apple would prefer that since its gets a 30% cut.

Most people subscribing to Office 365 from the new iPad apps are probably interested in the mobile experience, but it’s the same subscription you’d get from Microsoft. That means it includes 20GB of SkyDrive, all three mobile iPad apps, and Office installs on up to five PCs or Macs.

The apps themselves are remarkably full-featured and look very at home on the iPad. They fit in with the iOS 7 aesthetic, but they still place the tools and options in locations that make sense for long-time Office users. For example, the tab bar across the top contains most of the same things you’d find in the ribbon interface on a desktop. It’s got formatting tools, tables, formulas, track changes, and various goodies specific to each app.

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