Office for iPad racks up 27M downloads in six weeks
During her keynote address on Monday Microsoft's General Manager for Office, Julia White, told the crowd attending the TechEd North American 2014 conference in Houston that Office for iPad has been downloaded over 27 million times. That's double the previously reported number, showing an impressive amount of growth for the popular Office suite.
On April 3 Microsoft's @Office account Tweeted the its iPad Office suite had been downloaded 12 million times since it was launched on March 27.
More than 12 million downloads of Word, Excel, PPT & OneNote for #iPad from the @AppStore <3 #OfficeforiPad pic.twitter.com/iT2egNPDkj
— Office (@Office) April 3, 2014
Numbers can be misleading though.
While the Office for iPad apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) are free downloads, they require a paid Office 365 subscription to access document creation and editing features. Microsoft hasn't reported precise Office 365 subscription numbers but noted in its FY14 Q3 Earnings Release that its $99 annual subscription plan (Office 365 Home) had 4.4 million subscribers, added nearly one million new subscribers in three months.
TechCrunch reports that Word for iPad is currently ranked 11th in the United States, and in the top 100 in 109 countries and that Google Docs, which came out shortly after Office for iPad has dropped to 23rd in the U.S. on iPad.
While the download number is impressive, it must be bittersweet for Microsoft because it speaks to the popularity of the iPad. It remains to be seen if the Office for iPad download numbers will level out after the initial hype dies down and the pent-up demand is satisfied, but I'm pretty sure that Microsoft will enjoy another few months of growth.
What Office suite do you use on iPad? Microsoft, Apple or Google?