Microsoft makes Office apps available for Adndroid and Apple iOS

Microsoft has made its Word, Excel, and Powerpoint apps for Google's Android OC generally available along with new Outlook apps for Android and Apple's iOS, PC World reported.

All three Office apps can be downloaded from Google's Play store. The launch formed part of the company's strategy to become more cross-platform friendly across its entire portfolio of applications and services.

That there existed an interest for the apps first became evident with the launch of its Office apps for Apple's iPads in March last year. Further, the preview versions for Android registered 250,000 downloads, according to Microsoft.

The Android versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint have the same touch-friendly look and feel of the iOS versions with large touch points making it easy for even the fattest of fingers to navigate commands, Microsoft said in a blog post yesterday.

Commentators say, Microsoft has made the right move with the apps as it tries to please Android users.

The apps are compatible with Android 4.4, also known as KitKat and work on tablets running Android 5.0 or Lollipop, but there would be no official support until Microsoft put out a software update.

The apps would be supported only on ARM processors until Microsoft put out an update for Intel processors, which is expected within a quarter.

Meanwhile, The Telegraph reported that the versions would also sync files with the company's OneDrive cloud service so that they would be seamlessly accessible on desktops too.

Microsoft's Kirk Koenigsbauer said in a statement, ''we are working hard to reimagine the Office experience for a cloud-first, mobile-first world.

''Consider a pharmaceutical sales rep on a train in Chicago, updating her monthly budgets in Excel. Or a student in a Madrid coffee shop writing a paper in Word, while collaborating with other students back at the dorm. Or a consultant from Bangalore at his client's site, wirelessly projecting a PowerPoint presentation to a large screen.

''These are just a few scenarios our engineering teams anticipated when we designed the apps - for touch, on the go and tuned for Android tablets.''

Microsoft earlier ran a three-month preview of the software, starting in November last year, which generated 250,000 downloads across 110 countries.

The software was installed on 3,000 device variants, and the company provided feedback to the development team.

To run the software one needs a screen at least 7in and 1GB or RAM and while the basic features are free, ''premium features'' or commercial use would require an Office 365 subscription. All use would call for a Microsoft account.