Users of Microsoft's Office suite on Apple iPad will be able to create and edit documents for free instead of paying for a subscription, in a bid to capture more mobile users.
The move is the latest, and one of the most dramatic, in Microsoft's new strategy of getting customers to use its services regardless of device or operating system, rather than lose them to free or cheap alternatives, especially Google Apps.
The new strategy, led by new chief executive Satya Nadella, is a recognition that the dominance of Windows and Office on PCs has not translated to the fast-growing mobile arena, where iOS and Android dominate.
Nadella's first major move after taking the helm in February was to make Office available on the iPad, which has attracted 40 million users.
[Related: Office for iPad, saviour or cannibal?]
By downloading a free app, users could read Office documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint but had to buy an Office 365 subscription, starting at $7 per month, to create or edit them. That functionality is now free.
As reported by our sister title iTnews, the changes don't extend to business plans.
Business users will need an Office 365 subscription to edit documents stored on OneDrive for Business or Dropbox for Business.
The world's largest software company still has not released fully touch-optimised Office apps for Windows, but hinted on Thursday that they would be released with Windows 10 sometime next year.
Reporting by Bill Rigby
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
