Confirmed: Microsoft Office Universal Apps Launching Along With Windows 10 On July 29

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Windows 10 will be launching on July 29, and one of the company's biggest pushes is for each platform running the OS to have familiar applications that offer an essentially platform-agnostic experience. Microsoft's solution for this is Universal Apps.

Universal Apps will run natively on any platform running Windows 10, whether it be on your PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, or what have you, and they will operate in the same fashion no matter what device you run them on.

Microsoft has previously revealed that Outlook Mail and Outlook Calendar will be pre-installed in Windows 10, but the company has also been developing Word for Windows 10, Excel for Windows 10, PowerPoint for Windows 10 and OneNote for Windows 10. These applications will be available through the Windows Store and will be free of charge. The Universal Windows Application versions of these are touch enabled and will work in much the same way as the Android versions released earlier this year.

Word broke that Microsoft's Universal Windows Apps will be available in the Windows store on July 29, coinciding with the launch of Windows 10, but Microsoft had not made any public statements to that effect. We reached out to Microsoft for confirmation, and we were told by a company spokesperson that Universal Windows Apps will indeed be added to the Windows Store when Window 10 becomes available at the end of the month.

This is good news for users who may have been getting a little nervous about the staggered releases that Windows 10 will be getting (see below):

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Onus
    For all of these components to be "free" raises a big red flag; where is MS going to be getting its money? Are these free for a limited time only before a subscription kicks in? Are they selling any and/or all personal data to advertisers and other snoops? More information is needed, but since companies do NOT exist to give things away, this story is very incomplete.
    Reply
  • Mr Soup
    For all of these components to be "free" raises a big red flag; where is MS going to be getting its money?

    I don't know about short term, but Microsoft has more or less confirmed that their ultimate plan is to have office be completely subscription based at some point in the future. That being said their goal is still market share. They may be willing to take a loss on Office to make sure that everybody uses it and anybody who doesn't transitions to it. They want to sell windows phones, they want the new Internet Explorer (spartan or whatever) to be the primary web browser, etc. With market share come other revenue streams. But eventually, I'm sure it will become an annual subscription
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Doesn't say Word or Excel are free anywhere in the story.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Says available free of charge but will likely be subscription like Office 365
    Reply
  • lothdk
    Doesn't say Word or Excel are free anywhere in the story.

    Except that it does:
    "the company has also been developing Word for Windows 10, Excel for Windows 10, PowerPoint for Windows 10 and OneNote for Windows 10. These applications will be available through the Windows Store and will be free of charge."
    The follow up post was not being shown when I posted.

    Anyways, yes, making Word, Excel and PowerPoint free of charge seems strange, looking forward to further information on this.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Please feel free to read *all* of my post
    Reply
  • Omegaclawe
    Making basic versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint free is not a bad idea; it won't cost Microsoft much money. Traditionally, Microsoft has made their money from people (particularly enterprises) buying the full office-suite, not just the basics people use for school and the like. Considering the wealth of free options, charging $50 for the basic version is quickly becoming unsustainable, as people will migrate to the likes of Google Docs. Having free versions while Microsoft Office is still the well known name ensures that people use it at home, and learn on it, driving enterprise sales. It also helps with overall sales of the OS, if only slightly, and with the Universal Apps Model, Microsoft can make money in the same way Google and Apple do: slight cuts of every app sold. As the market grows and steam machines present a valid competitor, it may even become more profitable than windows sales themselves, and force Microsoft to make at least the basic version of the OS completely free of charge.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Above answer makes a lot of sense, free basic versions. MS has previous form with email clients, like Outlook Express. Do the same with Word and Excel, people will always be tempted with premium pay versions.
    Reply
  • jairus24
    For all of these components to be "free" raises a big red flag; where is MS going to be getting its money? Are these free for a limited time only before a subscription kicks in? Are they selling any and/or all personal data to advertisers and other snoops? More information is needed, but since companies do NOT exist to give things away, this story is very incomplete.

    I think that the free version will have its limitations just like the OneNote app included for free in the Windows 10 insider preview compared to the full blown version of OneNote 2013. Windows and Office are not the only products and services offered by Microsoft and considering the fact that they get tons of royalty money from every Android phones activated, they'll not be broke anytime soon.
    Reply