In addition to unlocking free document editing for Office users on iOS and Android tablets and smartphones, Microsoft this morning released a preview version of its Office apps for Android tablets — Word, Excel and PowerPoint — and confirmed that it’s working on a new “touch optimized” version of Office for Windows 10, the new version of of the operating system slated for release next year.
Microsoft says it will be providing more information soon about its plans for Office apps on Windows 10. No release date was given. But it’s very likely that Office for Android tablets will beat Office for Windows 10 to market.
The tentative plan is to released the finished version of Office for Android tablets in the first quarter of the 2015 calendar year, said John Case, the Microsoft Office corporate vice president, in an interview this week. The wider variety of Android tablets makes testing Office for that platform more difficult than testing Office for the iPad, for example.
“It will be very dependent on the feedback we get, and we’re hoping we get a lot of very good enthusiastic people who will test this stuff and give us feedback,” Case said. “If it’s positive, it could be early.”
Microsoft already makes Office for Android smartphones, and those apps are also getting a refresh to break them into separate Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps, according to a report by Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet.
Android tablet users can sign up for the preview version of Office here. Here’s a gallery of screenshots from the Office apps preview on Android tablets.
