Cloud Service Enables Microsoft Office 2010 iPad, Tablets

Productivity apps are still a sore spot on tablets.

So far, there has been no compelling approach to take Microsoft Office-like capability to an iPad and it may still take a while until we will get that, if at all. However, there is a new and rather interesting solution that may even be much more convincing to some users than Microsoft's own hosted product, Office 365.

Nexus, currently in a beta phase and scheduled to launch commercially at the end of this month, is a cloud service that provides free access to LibreOffice Writer, Calc, as well as Impress. During the beta period, access to Microsoft Word 2010, Excel 2010, and PowerPoint 2010 is free as well, but will be offered with Publisher for $4.99/$49.99 for academic usage per user and month/year.

The standard license will get pricey at $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year. However, for those who want a cloud solution of Microsoft office on their tablet, there are some inherent advantages, including the flexibility to choose from different storage destinations; including Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Jive, Mozy, Salesforce, Sharepoint, Office 365 and Skydrive. The service can also access accounts on Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, and Photobucket.

Wolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.

See here for all of Wolfgang's Tom's IT Pro articles.