Microsoft has broken barriers by announcing today that Office will be free on Android and iOS. This is the first time the productivity suite, used by 1.2 billion people worldwide, will come free of charge.

The announcement came a few months after Office, including Word, Powerpoint and Excel, were ported to iPad. Previously, users would only be able to preview the apps, and had to pay the $7 or $10 subscription fee to edit and save features.

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"Anytime someone has an idea or an inspiration, we want to empower them to take action," said John Case, vice president of Microsoft's Office. "With over a billion Office customers worldwide, and over 40 million downloads on the iPad, it's clear that Office applications are what people want to use to get things done."

Now all of these apps will work with or without the subscription. Microsoft has not extended this kindness to the desktop apps for Mac OS X or Windows. The software giant seems interested in hooking users into the ecosystem, and then making them pay the subscription fee for desktop access.

iPhone users and Android tablet users will get their first look at Office in the next few weeks. Previously, Microsoft has only made the new suite available to iPad. Microsoft did not release how many of those downloaders turned into paying customers.

Some may see the move as a revenue killer, considering Microsoft Office is still a core revenue product for Microsoft, with around 20 percent of Redmond's revenue this quarter coming from the productivity suite.

However, Microsoft has not detailed how many mobile users are paying for the software, and with alternatives like Google Docs and Apple iWork both free on mobile, it looks like Microsoft is getting with the times; instead of losing market share to other services.

Microsoft has already bundled some new features on their Office 365 membership, making it an appealing offer even with the new free suite on mobile. Desktop is still the expert class for editing documents, and Microsoft understands most Office users will remain loyal to the PC if they want to get work done. 

This may only be the start of Microsoft's push towards free software - Windows 10, their next big OS update, might be free to Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 customers, according to several analysts.

TagsOffice, Office for Mobile