Microsoft bets big on mobile devices for Office 2016 success

Software giant Microsoft is betting big on adoption of its Office solutions on smartphones and tablets in India as it launches the latest edition of the productivity software suite.

The Office 2016 apps, which include popular programmes like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook and Access, are the latest addition to Microsoft's cloud-based subscription service Office 365. "Office 2016 is about reinventing productivity and business processes for the mobile-first, cloud-first world.

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It makes collaboration and teamwork easier than ever before," said Tyler Bryson, GM, Marketing & Operations, Microsoft. It also focusses heavily on security and protection of the data of the user, he added. Office 365 subscription ranges from Rs 3,299 per annum (for one user) to Rs 33,911 (for Professional Plus).

"A big area of focus for us is smartphones and tablets. Smartphone market in India is booming and we want to showcase the ease with which users can work on documents across devices using the connected set of apps and services that make collaboration easier," he said.

India, which is among the fastest growing smartphone markets globally, has over 350 million Internet users. Of these, 213 million (over 60 per cent) users access the Internet through mobile devices.

With Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system, the Office 2016 is well-integrated with features like Sway (to create shareable, interactive stories) and Windows Hello (logs the user into Windows 10 and Office 365 in a simple step).

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In the past few months, Microsoft has also released a series of Office apps for Apple and Android devices to cash in on the mobile devices ecosystem.

Source PTI