Microsoft, after a long period of wait, has promised to bring a suite of Microsoft Office app to Android tablets which will include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
The app is expected to hit Android devices any time this year. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a blog post in March this year that the company will continue to delight users by offering the full power of native Office apps on all types of devices and enable to use it on the go.
The Verge reports that Microsoft is looking for people to help it with the private beta test of the Office app for Android tablets. Interested users can download the free pre-release version of the app from Microsoft’s SharePoint website and get a chance to take part in the beta testing.
The app is expected to be touch optimized as it is purposely built for tablet devices and function similar to the freemium model of the Office for iPad suite. The users would be able to view the documents for free and to edit the documents, a subscription to the Office 365 account is required.
Office for iPad topped the charts within 12 hours when it was released three months ago, with most users downloading the Excel and PowerPoint apps. However, Apple has its own iWork suite for free which includes Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iDevices.
Microsoft’s announcement comes in time with Google’s announcement that it will pull its Quickoffice app as its Drive includes Docs, Sheets and Slides apps, supporting Microsoft Office file formats and it can sync with the cloud.
