Google has made Quickoffice mobile app free for both Android and iOS users, following Apple's announcement to offer its iWork apps, Pages, Numbers and Keynote free to people who buy new iOS devices.
The Quickoffice suite allows viewing, editing and creation of Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, and allows users to store them on Google Drive, Google's cloud storage solution.
It's interesting to note that after acquiring Quickoffice in June 2012, Google had made the iPad version of the app free for its Google Apps for Business customers in December. Earlier this year, itextended the same perk to Android users and made the iPad app compatible with the iPhone.
However, starting today all iOS and Android users will be able to download and use Quickoffice, free of charge. Google has also announced that if users sign in to their Google Account from the new Quickoffice app for Android or iOS by September 26, 2013, they'll get an extra 10GB of Google Drive storage for two years, which will be added to their account in the next few weeks.
It's interesting to see mobile Office suites taking each other on. With the announcement of the new iPhones, Apple had made its iWork suite which also lets users create, edit and view presentations, documents and spreadsheets, free for new users. The apps are offered when users activate their new iPhones or iPads running iOS 7. The iWork apps are also integrated with iCloud, Apple's own cloud storage and sync solution.
Ironically, Microsoft's Office apps, which were launched for both Android and iPhone are offered as a free download but an Office 365 subscription is required to use them. The apps also offer the ability to sync documents to Microsoft's Skydrive cloud service. It's worth pointing out that the apps don't work on the Apple iPad or Android tablets in the interest of Windows tablets which showcase Office as one of their key USPs.
It seems that
Google has started to take the Nexus experience and provide bits and pieces of
it to users on non-Nexus Android devices. To begin with, Google has released
its Google Keyboard app for phones and tablets running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream
Sandwich) and above. The app on the Google Play Store is now available for English speaking countries
while Google says that more locales will be added soon.
The application gives you the stock Android keyboard that comes with Nexus
devices. Much like how keyboard applications like Swiftkey and Swype work, you
can download the Google keyboard application from the Play Store in order to
replace the existing keyboard on your Android device. It is however important
to note that while these popular keyboards are paid, Google has launched the
Google keyboard free of cost.
The stock keyboard was updated during the launch of Jelly Bean and comes with
features such as Gesture typing and next-word prediction. With gesture typing
you basically glide through letters without lifting your finger and when done
you can lift your finger to finish a word. You can also tap the microphone on
the keyboard to compose messages with voice typing.
The keyboard comes with support for 26 languages. One major missing point that
most users claim is the absence of emoticons, something that OEMs like Samsung,
LG and HTC add to their keyboards.
For Nexus enthusiasts the stock keyboard coming to the Play Store is certainly
positive news. Third-party applications that claim to give a Nexus keyboard
experience are available on the Play Store, but there's nothing like the real
thing. With the official Google keyboard now available for download, all these
have surely become obsolete.
The keyboard is presently not available in India for download. But staying in
line with Google's promises, we expect a roll out soon.
