Google puts pressure on Microsoft, launches Quickoffice for iPhone and Android Free for Google Apps for Business customers, adds to already available Quickoffice for iPad

Google
launched its Microsoft Office
substitute, Quickoffice, for
Apple's iPhone, Android
smartphones and Android
tablets, fulfilling a promise
made in December.
The release on Tuesday
follows the launch of
Quickoffice for Apple's iPad
late last year, when a Google
executive said that iPhone
and Android versions "are on
the way." The move was also
preceded by a February
announcement that Google
was baking the Quickoffice
technology into both its
Chrome browser and Chrome

The search giant acquired
Quickoffice in mid-2012 and
rolled the firm's development
team into its Google Apps
group. On the iPhone, iPad
and Android smartphones
and tablets, Quickoffice lets
customers view, create and
edit Word, Excel and
PowerPoint documents.
The new iOS and Android
apps are available free to
paying customers of Google
Apps for Business, a cloud-
based suite that costs $50
per user for a one-year
subscription.
Customers that don't
subscribe to Google Apps can
buy stand-alone apps --
Quickoffice Pro for iPhones
and Android smartphones,
Quickoffice Pro HD for iPads
and Android tablets -- for $
15 and $20 , respectively.
Google also boasted that the
new apps, as well as the
December iPad app, which
was updated Tuesday, are
now more tightly tied to
Google Drive, the search
company's online storage
service.
Quickoffice for iOS -- the
same app runs on both the
iPhone and iPad -- can be
downloaded free of charge
from Apple's App Store; the
Android version is available
on Google Play . Neither will
work without a Google Apps
for Business account.
Microsoft, long rumored to be
considering porting all or
some of its Office suite to iOS,
perhaps Android as well, has
remained mum on its plans.
Most experts believe that,
assuming Microsoft pulls the
trigger, it will take the same
approach as Google to
sidestep Apple's 30% cut of
all App Store revenue: Offer
the Office apps free of charge,
but enable them only for
customers with an Office 365
subscription.
Analysts are convinced that
Microsoft will eventually
release Office for iOS and
Android, with some of the
more bullish estimating that
the Redmond, Wash.,
developer could generate
billions from app sales.
Others, however, have worried
that Microsoft's window of
opportunity is relatively small
because of a rapid shift to
smaller, 7-in. and 8-in.
tablets, which are
substandard platforms for
creating content, and that it
must act soon .