officeandroidMicrosoft this morning released Office Mobile for Android — bringing basic Word, Excel and PowerPoint functionality to Google-powered smartphones, but only for Office 365 subscribers, and not for Android tablets.

The company used the same approach last month when it released Office Mobile for iPhone. The strategy means that Office Mobile is primarily an added benefit for existing Office 365 users. It’s unlikely to attract many new users purely on Android given the $99.99/year price of an Office 365 subscription.

Microsoft’s decision not to release the app for Android tablets or the iPad gives Windows 8 tablets, including Microsoft’s own Surface lineup, a continued point of differentiation with those devices.

Features of Office Mobile for Android include fidelity with standard versions of Microsoft Office, keeping formatting and layout the same across devices and computers. Documents sync and stay up to date via Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service.

The app is available for download on the Google Play store.

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