Microsoft’s new boss moves beyond Windows with Office for iPad
MICROSOFT’S new chief executive Satya Nadella revealed his first big strategic play for the software giant yesterday by releasing its Office suite of apps on Apple’s rival iPad mobile platform. “A billion people rely on Office every day, and we’ve worked diligently to create a version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint that delivers the best productivity experience available on the iPad,” said Nadella, just 53 days into his role. Windows was barely mentioned as Nadella showed off the apps as part of his new mantra of a “mobile-first, cloud-first” Microsoft. The new apps and their “freemium” pricing model – users won’t have to pay a thing to read or present documents, but editing and sharing requires a subscription – are seen as a departure for the company that built an empire selling Office for Windows.