The mobile app versions of Excel and PowerPoint have both been downloaded over 500 million times on Android via the Google Play Store, a major milestone.

No, that doesn’t equate to 500 million users, of course. Like many, I’ve downloaded each of these apps dozens of times, if not more. There is probably some single- or low double-digit million users of each app, I estimate.

But let’s not detract from this good news, which is an affirmation, of sorts, of Satya Nadella’s strategy to promote Microsoft over brands like Windows or Surface and, in doing so, to embrace the mobile platforms its customers are actually using. Plus, the Office mobile apps are more functional for those with paid Office 365 and Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

Anyway, news of the 500 million download milestones was first reported by Android Police, which presumably refreshes Google Play Store web pages for a hobby. Not surprisingly, the most popular Office mobile app—and, as it turns out, the most popular Microsoft mobile app overall—Word Mobile, hit this milestone first, back in May.

Microsoft shipped its first Office mobile apps—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Mobile—on Android in January 2015, starting with versions for tablets. But it followed those up with handset versions of the apps in June 2015. Those releases, of course, trailed the initial Office mobile versions on iPad and iPhone by about a year.

Remember when Microsoft shipping Office on iPad was such a big deal? Right. Me neither.

And those mobile apps—on both platforms—remain very popular. In the Google Play Store, Microsoft Outlook is the most-downloaded app for Android, Word Mobile is the third, Excel is #10, PowerPoint is #17, and OneNote is #29. For iOS, Word Mobile is the 11th most-downloaded free app on iPad, Microsoft Outlook is #21, Excel is #25, and PowerPoint is #29.

Tagged with Office for Android