Office for iPad Shakes Up the Mobile Enterprise

摘要

The arrival of Microsoft's Office productivity suite on the iPad last spring means many things, includ-ing the end of the good times for the third-party iPad apps that resemble Office. Now, Apple's and Microsoft's closed systems, iWork and Office for iPad, will leave little room for third-party productivity apps such as Google's Quickoffice and Citrix's Office2 HD, or for third-party storage services such as Box and Dropbox, and third-party management software such as Mobilelron and AirWatch, Office for iPad was an instant hit. More than 12 million people downloaded it in the first week, even though it costs $100 a year, whereas iWork is free on newer Apple devices and costs $10 per app on older devices, And CIOs may see a compelling case for using the Microsoft suite, given the pervasiveness of Office, the rise of the iPad and the proliferation of third-party cloud storage and mobile-device-management (MDM) services.