Google Hits Microsoft, Making Quickoffice Available for Free to Everyone
Google (GOOG) is offering its mobile app Quickoffice — a tool for working with Microsoft (MSFT) Office documents — for free to to all users. The app was previously available to Google Apps for Business users and enables users view and work with Microsoft Office documents across all devices, from PCs to iPad, iPhone and Android phones and tablets. The VAR Guy has said that QuickOffice could be Google’s ultimate Trojan Horse into the Microsoft Office market.
The release of QuickOffice to all users for free has the potential to further disrupt Microsoft’s lock on the productivity market.
“Everyone likes free stuff, which is why … we’re making Quickoffice available for free, for everyone,” Google Engineering Vice President Alan Warren acknowledged in a Google blog post.
Interested parties can download the free Quickoffice app for Google Android and Apple (AAPL) iOS phones and tablets on Google Play and in the App Store. After the download is complete, users will have to sign into a Google account to start editing Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations on mobile.
New features included are a refreshed icon, the ability to create .ZIP folders, and view charts in Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as the ability to work across all devices.
But Warren didn’t stop there. Google also gave users an extra 10GB of free Google Drive storage for those who signed into their Google Accounts fromt he new Quickoffice apps for Android or iOS by Sept. 26. (Sorry, that was yesterday.)
Google acquired Quickoffice back in June 2012.
