Office for iPad downloaded over 12 million times in just a week

Microsoft says it has clocked up 12 million downloads of Office for iPad apps. Microsoft announced the figure nine days after launching the much-anticipated suite of apps for the Apple tablet. The 12 million downloads are across Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote apps. Four days after launching the three new apps for the iPad Microsoft announced they had shot to the top of Apple’s free iPad apps chart, which is where they remain in the US with Word at the top, followed by Excel and PowerPoint.

It looks like Apple’s free iWork suite for iOS just wasn’t enough for many iPad users. One week after landing in Apple’s App Store, Microsoft’s Office for iPad has already seen more than twelve million downloads, the company tweeted from its Office account on Thursday. The Office apps also topped Apple’s list of most popular iPad apps soon after their introduction on March 27 and still remain in the top three spots.  Microsoft’s three productivity apps—Excel, PowerPoint, and Word—are offered as separate downloads for the iPad unlike previous iterations of the Office suite for the iPhone and Android smartphones. Microsoft offers its Office apps for free to all iPad users, but to do anything other than merely view your files you’ll need an Office 365 subscription.