The much-awaited iOS and Android version of Microsoft Office suite may be around the corner. Online reports speculate that the productivity suite may be available on the iOS and Android mobile platforms in the next year.

There may be some strings attached to this though, since it is generally presumed that the iOS and Android apps of the Office suite may not be fully functional, without having to subscribe to Microsoft’s own Office 365 cloud service.

Microsoft Mobile Office Applications

From a Verge report citing unnamed sources, the yet to be released Office apps may only provide their users with the option to view their Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. Each user may have to subscribe to the Microsoft Office 365 service, in order to edit his or her documents on the go.

Though the Verge report did not state or include a price for the subscription, a Microsoft Office Home Premium product’s 365 subscription generally costs $99.99 per annum for five user licenses. The mobile version of the subscription may, however, not cost as much as this.

App Release Date

According to the Verge report, the iOS version of Microsoft Office may be released towards the end of February or in early March 2013, while the Android version may be released in the month of May 2013.

The first date correlates with some earlier online reports on the release of the mobile Office apps. This includes a Czech Republic Microsoft product manager revealing a release date of March 2013 for the apps, and a published photo by The Daily, supposedly claiming to be a photograph of the mobile Office application running on an iPad, both of which were refuted and/or denied by Microsoft.

Mobile Office Launch

There were some predictions, too, that Microsoft would launch a mobile Office product at its SharePoint conference in Las Vegas, based on the assumption that Microsoft may want to position its mobile Office app as an enterprise product.

Presently Android and iOS users may use Microsoft OneNote app for note-taking but will have to rely on other third party apps like QuickOffice and Documents To Go, to read and edit their Office documents.

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