Microsoft Office Suite To Be Free For All Mobile Devices Sporting Less Than 10-Inch Screen Size

Very recently, Microsoft took everyone by surprise with the announcement of free upgrade of Windows 10 for everyone in China. This free upgrade is reportedly applicable for even the pirated copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8. However, the latest news is that, the tech giant is gearing up to woo the customers in the mobile space by offering the Microsoft Office Suite free for devices featuring a display size lesser than10-inch.

Vice president for Office 365 Client Apps and Services, Kirk Koenigsbauer, has reportedly declared in a company blog post that, the Microsoft Office suite for mobile platforms will follow the “freemium” model. This translates to offering the productivity apps of Office Suite for Windows, Android and iOS handset owners free of charge, notes GSM Arena.

Koenigsbauer apparently wrote, according to the internal analysis and research, in addition to considering the device trends, Microsoft has classified any device with a “screen size of 10.1-inch or less as a true mobile device.” Therefore, the said screen size is the metric that separates the “personal” and “professional” Office experience, notes PC World. He further added the following when writing about mobile devices, “You’re probably using it on the go, when it’s not practical to use a larger computing device such as a PC or a Mac. You probably aren’t using a mouse or a keyboard, instead navigating via touch interface. It’s probably not a “pro” category tablet that is used for design or presentations.”

With this official confirmation, Microsoft will offer Office’s mobile productivity apps for free on any Android, iOS and Windows device with the aforesaid screen size restriction. In any case, users may have to opt for a paid subscription to utilise the “Office 365 services,” notes GSM Arena.

On the other hand, interestingly, the official blog post also noted that, one-in-seven people use Microsoft Office every day. Furthermore, the tech giant has also confirmed that Samsung, Dell and many more will apparently bring the Office app experience to all the Android powered devices in late-2015. This will reportedly be achieved by pre-installing Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and even, Skype on the smartphones, tablets and phablets, thereby, delivering the entire productivity Office suite to users across the globe.

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