Microsoft has announced that its Office Mobile for iPhone is now available in the Apple App Store free of charge for Office 365 Home Premium and Office 365 ProPlus subscribers in the U.S. Office Mobile for iPhone will be available in international markets in the following week. Office Mobile for iPhone provides a great mobile viewing and editing experience across Word, PowerPoint and Excel. This is similar to free Office Mobile for Windows phone that ships with every Windows handset.
Microsoft has not revealed about its plans for introducing Office Mobile on iPad and Android devices. Microsoft is treading a fine line as it tries to make its $100-a-year Office subscription more compelling, without removing an advantage that tablet computers running Microsoft’s Windows system now have – the ability to run popular Office programs such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
People with Office 365 subscriptions will be able to run the new app on up to five iPhones, in addition to the five Mac or Windows computers.
After signing in to an Office 365 account, one can access, view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from anywhere, and keep all your content and formatting intact so the document still looks great when you’re back on your PC or Mac.
Features of Office Mobile:
Consistent Office experience
Because Office Mobile is from Microsoft, your formatting and layout remain intact when viewing, editing or adding comments, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt graphics and shapes. When you return to your PC or Mac your document looks like it should.
Easy access
Office Mobile is designed for people on the move. Microsoft made it quick and easy to access your Office content in the cloud on SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro. When you’re on your phone, you’ll easily find the content you viewed on your computer in the Recent Documents panel. And, of course, you can view and edit Office documents sent in email.
Optimized for the small screen
Office Mobile has been optimized for the small screen of your phone so you can get the important things done quickly. For instance, the Slide Navigator allows you to page through PowerPoint presentations fast while Speaker Notes help you practice presentations on the go. When reviewing Word documents on your phone, the Resume Reading feature takes you to the exact point in the document where you left off on your computer so you never miss a beat.
Sharing built in
You can make quick edits and share your documents right from your phone with Office Mobile. When working with others, you can review comments in Word and Excel documents on your phone and add your own. When you’re done, you can save directly to SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro or just send as an email attachment.
If you don’t already have an Office 365 subscription, a great way to try Office Mobile is to sign up for an Office 365 trial at http://www.office.com/.
