In its continued drive to market the iPad as a productivity machine, Apple is suggesting Microsoft’s Office 365 subscription package as an accessory for the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
The suggestion appears during the checkout process when preordering the tablet from Apple’s website. However, Apple is also promoting the package in this manner for customers ordering the iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 2 or iPad Mini 4 – and might have been doing so for at least two weeks.
Apple described the new iPad Pro as “the ultimate PC replacement” at the device’s official reveal on Monday, while iOS 9 saw the addition of various multitasking features, including Slide Over, Split View and Picture in Picture, to aid productive tasks on various recent iPads.
Nonetheless, the core functionality of Microsoft’s Word, PowerPoint and Excel apps is already free on all iOS devices bar the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, for which an Office 365 subscription is required to unlock the basic features.