The suite of Microsoft Office applications is now available for download directly in Apple’s Mac App Store for the first time. Previously, Mac users had to download the applications from Microsoft’s website.
The apps included are: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive. You can download them individually, or as part of a bundle.
Office 365 is subscription based. That means the software package is free to download, but you’ll have to pay a subscription fee to get any use out of it. Users have the option of subscribing through their Apple accounts, which plays into Apple’s efforts to convince app developers to use subscription models on its platforms to bolster reliable revenue.
Apple has for a while offered bundles of apps to purchase in the iOS app store, but this is the first time we’ve noticed a bundled subscription package in the Mac App Store.
The Mac App Store was redesigned with Mojave to more closely resemble the iOS App Store. That primarily meant an increased focused on manual curation and editorial copy, but it also meant that the store was organized into different categories than before. As one might expect, Office 365 lives primarily in the “Work” tab of the App Store. In fact, as you can see below, it dominates that page for the moment.
This generic-sounding statement from Apple marketing SVP Phil Schiller was included with the announcement:
We are excited to welcome Microsoft Office 365 to the all new Mac App Store in macOS Mojave. Apple and Microsoft have worked together to bring great Office productivity to Mac users from the very beginning. Now, with Office 365 on the Mac App Store, it’s easier than ever to get the latest and best version of Office 365 for Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
Microsoft has previously put some work into making Office 365 on Mac play nicely with newer macOS features like Dark Mode and Continuity Camera, and the versions of the software in the App Store offer the latest on that front.
