2014 has been a momentous year for the Office team. In March, we introduced Office 365 Personal for individual users as well as Office for the iPad, which has been downloaded more than 40 million times. We have also released native apps for OneNote, Lync, Yammer, OneDrive for Business and OWA for iOS and Android.
Over the last few months, we have seen tremendous growth in our Office 365 business. In the past quarter alone, our number of consumer subscribers grew by about 25 percent to 7 million.
As part of Microsoft’s continuous effort to empower its Office 365 users, we recently announced a series of updates to our productivity suite aimed at helping people work more effectively in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. Among them, we announced that we will be offering unlimited cloud storage in OneDrive, introducing a new Outlook for Mac and a new partnership with Dropbox.
In addition, today we announced how we are bringing Office to everyone and on every device with the start of the Office for Android tablet preview, new Office for iPhone apps, updated Office for iPad apps, and more. Also, starting today, people can create and edit Office content on iPhones, iPads, and soon, Android tablets using Office apps without an Office 365 subscription.
Here’s a quick snapshot of what each means and how you can benefit:
Announced Today – New Office apps for iPhone and iPad; preview for Office for Android tablet
- Microsoft released a new Office app for iPhone and an updated Office for iPad.
- Users can sign up for a preview of Office apps for Android tablet, with general availability expected in early 2015.
- iOS and Android users can use the apps to view, create and edit Office content without a subscription.
- Of course Office 365 subscribers will continue to benefit from the full Office experience across devices with advanced editing and collaboration capabilities, unlimited OneDrive storage and a number of other benefits
- Get more details here.
Unlimited cloud storage on OneDrive
- Office 365 customers will get unlimited storage at no additional cost. The roll out for Office 365 Home, Personal and University users starts now.
- OneDrive for Business customers can expect to see the unlimited storage roll out in 2015.
- More details here.
Dropbox integration in Office
- Microsoft and Dropbox will integrate their services for collaboration across Dropbox and Microsoft Office on phones, tablets and the Web.
- Users can now access Dropbox from Office apps, edit Office files directly from Dropbox and share new/edited files from Office apps via Dropbox.
- Web integration between the Dropbox website and Office Online will be available in the first half of 2015.
- Dropbox app will also be made available on Windows Phone and Windows platforms in the coming months.
- Get more details here.
New Outlook for Mac
- The new Outlook for Mac aims to offer a more consistent Office experience between devices as well as improved reliability and performance.
- It is available now for Office 365 Commercial, Home, Personal and University users.
- The beta release for the next version of Office for Mac is expected in the first half 2015, with final release in the second half of 2015.
- Get more details here.
Do download the new apps and try them. You will notice that we have made a conscientious effort to ensure a consistent experience across devices. And if you have yet to sign up for Office 365, there’s so much value built-in from the word go. Still not convinced? Check out these videos.
– Reed Wotiz, Director, Office Consumer and Small Business, Microsoft Asia Pacific
