Microsoft releases Office 365 Personal -- for iPad too

Microsoft officials said last month that the company's newest Office 365 subscription plan -- Office 365 Personal -- would be available later this spring.

Tuesday, Microsoft made Office 365 available for purchase for $69.99 per year, or $6.99 per month.

The Personal version of Office 365 allows users to install Office apps on one PC or Mac, plus one Windows tablet or iPad. The addition of the iPad is new, and enabled by Microsoft's recent launch of Office for iPad.

(Office for iPad is free, but only rudimentary capabilities are available to those who don't subscribe to certain Office 365 plans which include the fully featured version of the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps custom-built for iPads.)

For users who want/need Office to be installed on more devices, Microsoft is still selling Office 365 Home -- formerly known as Office 365 Home Premium. Office 365 Home allows installation of local Office apps on up to five PCs or Macs, plus five Windows and/or iPad tablets. Office 365 Home costs $99.99 for a year or $9.99 per month.

Microsoft last month removed the requirement that users pay for an Office 365 plan to get Office Mobile on their iPhones or Android phones. So anyone, with or without an Office 365 plan, can get Office Mobile for Windows Phone, Android, and iPhone devices.

Office 365 Personal and Home are designed for home/noncommercial use. Those who plan to use Office for business purposes need additional licenses from Microsoft to be in compliance.

Update: For those who don't want or need Office installed locally on their devices, there's always Office Online (formerly known as Office Web Apps). These Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote are free and available to IE, Safari and Chrome users -- and are even available in the Chrome Web Store as of yesterday.

This story originally appeared as "Microsoft Office 365 Personal now available (for iPad users, too)" on ZDNet.