Getting Down to Business: Office Apps for the iPhone |
 Reviewed by Kevin Diep |
 (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)  Loading ... |
Editor’s rating: 
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Business and technology have always relied on each other for development and growth. It’s no surprise that developers for the iPhone are constantly finding ways to integrate the two. Apps that fit this purpose mostly come in the form of office apps. These apps allow users to read and share their text, pdf, spreadsheet, or html files. Office apps for the iPhone make it easier for professionals by enabling them to send and receive important information from any location.
Office apps are by no means new to the app store, but it’s nice to know what kind of deal you’re getting when you buy one of these apps. If you’re looking for something that covers a variety of functions, the two preeminent apps that fulfill this function are:
1. Documents To Go Premium – Office Suite
- Capabilities: Reading and editing Microsoft Word and Excel files, transferring files over wi-fi, can access Google Docs and other document accounts, creating emails with attachments
- Average Customer Rating: 3.5
- Cost: $11.99
- Customer Sentiment: Needs to have one version be compatible with both the iPhone and iPad; Users do not want to have to pay twice for something that can be transferable on the same account
- Personal Opinion: I like this application a lot. It’s organized well and it does everything I would need it to do if I was at school or in the workplace. I can access my email and download shared documents, create my own documents on the fly, or get a document from my desktop after I’ve finished it so I can take it where ever I need it. It could be a little cheaper as its competitor provides very similar functionality for two dollars less.
2. Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite
- Capabilities: Reading and editing Microsoft Word and Excel files, transferring files over wi-fi, can access Google Docs and other document accounts, creating emails with attachments
- Average Customer Rating: 3.5
- Cost: $9.99
- Customer Sentiment: The app is glitchy (freezes up, fails to save, fails to access Google Docs), Lacks spellcheck
- Personal Opinion: This app is useful for all the same reasons as its competitor. The problem is that the user interface is a lot less intuitive in comparison. I had trouble figuring out how to read email attachments that were not my own.
There are a few other apps in the app store with more limited capabilities in comparison to these two apps. But these apps are still worth a look for their specific functionality and lower prices. Here are a couple of such apps to consider:
- Capabilities: Can read and download documents from email account and other internet sources
- Average Customer Rating: 4
- Cost: $4.99
- Customer Sentiment: Problems with reading html offline, issues with freezing
- Personal Opinion: If I were looking for a full office app (with document editing), I would avoid this app. However, if I had my documents prepared beforehand and only wanted to access them without having to pay for document editing, this is definitely the app I would want. Because it had an internet browser, this app gave me the most freedom to search the internet for attached documents.
- Capabilities: Word processing, Spreadsheet creation, access to Google Docs and other document sharing websites
- Average Customer Rating: 3.5
- Cost: $5.99
- Customer Sentiment: Has issues completing “round trip” file transfers (receives files from internet but sometimes fails to convert files to a form suitable for email)
- Personal Opinion: This app was similar to the Quickoffice app, except it only accesses Google Docs and does not read email attachments. I find that emailing documents is the easiest way to transfer documents between devices so the lack of this capability causes me to have doubts about this app.
Although these apps lack the functionality of the first two, they still provide the essentials for creating professional documents. All of these apps allow for users to work from any location or on the move, promoting greater productivity and less effort wasted trying to crunch time between idle periods away from the computer. Having these apps with you means having all the information you need for a presentation, meeting, or conference in your pocket. It is no longer enough to consider these apps. These apps are absolutely essential to doing good business.
