Office for iPad success - topping the charts

As predicted last week, Microsoft released Office for iPad app, and to less fanfare, updated their Office for iPhone app too.

iPad
Looking at the UK charts, the iPad apps have been a huge success, current filling the top 3 spaces on the 'Top Fee iPad Apps' chart

Which is great news, but the free app only provides view access on the iPad.  The better news is that they seem to be doing well on the "In App Purchases" too.

To get the unlock the full functionality for these apps you either need an existing Office 365 subscription, or sign up as a new user through the app @ £79.99 for Office 365 Home.

On the "Top Grossing iPad Apps" charts, which tracks the "in app purchases" Microsoft Word is ranked 7th.  Considering that places 1 - 6 are given to gaming behemoths such as the Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans, this is a great result.

Excel ranks at 22 and PowerPoint does not appear on this chart, however this is misleading as subscribing to any one of these unlocks all three.

iPhone

It has been less well publicised, but the update to the Office application on the iPhone, Microsoft Office Mobile, has also had a major change.

Previously this required an Office 365 subscription to use, however the update has fully unlocked this for all users, for free.  Combined with a free OneDrive account, this is a great way to access, view, edit and create content on the move.  

Again, looking at the UK charts, the Microsoft Office Mobile app is place 3rd, which can only be more great news for Microsoft.

This all shows a clear need for a top quality, consistent, productivity solution for all devices, if only we could have had it last year.