May 13, 2014

Microsoft image

The popularity of Office for iPad has surged in the past five weeks, reaching 27 million in the top 10 countries, Office general manager Julia White has revealed.

“Here is the latest download information about the apps. It looks like we have about 27 million downloads,” said White, while speaking at the Microsoft’s TechEd conference. “Not bad for just the top 10 countries.”

She said that means downloads have more than doubled in the last five weeks putting it into the No. 1 spot ahead of the popular Google Docs app. Office for iPad, which debuted at the end of March, had reached 12 million as of April 3.

What we don’t know is how much revenue Microsoft has taken in as a result of the new downloads — all Office for iPad apps are free, so the only way the software giant would have benefited financially is if the new Office users forked out for in-app subscription purchases.

Also, it is likely Microsoft is not lumping the four separate apps that make up Office — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote — together when counting new users. But even counted as individual downloads — 27 million is impressive, even if that number is not truly representative of its new user base.

When the software giant debuted the iPad app in March, the company said the software had been “reimagined, while retaining what people love about Office.”

Word, Excel and Powerpoint “have the robust capabilities and familiar look and feel that is unmistakably Office, while offering a fantastic touch experience built from the ground up for iPad,” the company said.