Microsoft Office For iPad Surpasses 27 Million Downloads In 46 Days After Its Debut In March

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced Monday that its newly released Office for iPad collection of apps has been downloaded more than 27 million times since it was released in late March.

Speaking at the TechEd Conference in Houston, Julia White, general manager for Microsoft's Office Division, said that the Office for iPad suite, which includes apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, hit the 27-million-download mark in 46 days after its debut on March 27, Business Insider reported, adding that the number is more than twice the figure the company shared over a month ago. On April 3, a week after the launch of Office for iPad, Microsoft had tweeted that the suite had been downloaded more than 12 million times.

Microsoft said in April that it had 4.4 million paid users of the personal versions of Office for iPad, which means that most of the 27 million downloads were from business users with corporate Office 365 accounts, according to Business Insider.

The Office apps can be downloaded for free from the App Store to read, view and present documents. However, users have to pay $99.99 a year for an Office 365 subscription if they want to edit documents using the iPad. And, Apple is reportedly taking a 30 percent cut on Office 365 subscriptions, in line with the company’s in-app purchase policy.

The Office for iPad apps were at the top of Apple’s iOS App Store charts for free apps one day after the launch while Word is currently the fourth most-downloaded free iPad app. Excel and PowerPoint are at 11th and 26th positions on the list, respectively, AppleInsider reported.