CloudOn, the online service that lets you use ‘real’ Office programs on a range of mobile devices, has been bought by Dropbox.
We looked at CloudOn back in 2012. It runs a copy of the full Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) on a server and virtualizes the screen display to your tablet device. You can also use it in a web browser window on any computer.
CloudOn has been somewhat overtaken by the Office for iPad and soon Android apps. But it has a place for people who need ‘full’ Office not a feature limited app.
The company claims 9 million registered users but isn’t accepting new accounts as part of the Dropbox takeover. The entire system will shut down on 15 March 2015, presumably to be reborn at some later time as part of Dropbox.
It’s an extension of Dropbox’s attempts to integrate with Microsoft Office. Dropbox is the only non-Microsoft cloud storage system that can be accessed by the Office mobile apps.
