Microsoft unveiled its new Microsoft Office suite for the iPad, a move much anticipated by business customers as workers increasingly bring in their own mobile devices to use at work.
As of Thursday, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint are available in Apple’s iTunes store.
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“The vision is pretty straightforward: It is to make sure that the 1 billion Office users and growing can have access to the high-fidelity Office experience on every device they love to use,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at a press event.
Read More Microsoft hits 13-year high on Office-for-iPad report
“It’s about time. What were they waiting for? I mean, the iPad came out in 2010. It’s been four years,” noted Jefferson Graham, technology reporter atUSA Today, who said Microsoft had been losing out on substantial revenue by not having a version of Office for the iPad earlier.
“It was dumb not to make it available when free or almost-free alternatives like Google Docs and Apple‘s Pages and Numbers were available,” Graham added.
Thursday’s press event was Nadella’s first major event since being named Microsoft’s CEO in February, and investors are likely thrilled to have someone new in charge, Graham said.
Even if Nadella’s business strategies win the favor of investors, Graham said, “he’s got to convince people that he can come up with a Windows program that people will want.”
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