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Buying Guide: The Best iPad Mobile Office Suites
You can't do business on the desktop without an office suite; the same rule applies on the mobile front. Creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations are necessary for keeping your business flowing, and now you can do so on your iPad thanks to a crop of mobile office suites.
The Editors' Choice Award-winning iWork for iPad is Apple's office suite that's tailor-made for Cupertino's slate. With it you can whip up documents, spreadsheets, and presentations (as you can with any of the other office suites presented here), but iWork for iPad adds extreme usability, Air Play Mirroring (compatible only with the iPhone 4S and iPad 2), wireless printing, and a virtual pointer that lets you highlight areas of the screen. The one major drawback is that you have to purchase Keynote, Numbers, and Pages individually at $9.99 a pop, so the entire mobile office suite is pricier than the competition's all-in-one packages.
The $19.99 Quickoffice Pro HD is a very solid iWork for iPad alternative. The all-in-one purchase not only lets you create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, but edit files stored in Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, and other cloud-based services as well.
Like Quickoffice Pro HD, the $9.99 Smart Office lets you tap into Google Docs, but the user interface is considerably less intuitive than the competition's. Still, Smart Office is the most affordable iPad office suite, so it may be one to consider if you're looking to save a few pennies.
If you're ready to explore the world of iPad office suites, check out the links below to read more about our recommended apps for business-minded iPad users. And don't forget to visit our iPad business apps roundup.
Featured in this Roundup:
iWork (for iPad)
Price: $9.99 each for Keynote, Numbers, and Pages
iWork for iPad (sold as three separate pieces) features a minimal learning curve, power, and surprising flexibility. Of the three apps, Pages is very capable (though it's best used with a keyboard), Numbers is a terrific portable number-crunching tool, and Keynote is dazzling and effective. The $19.99 Quickoffice HD Pro and $9.99 Smart Office are lower-priced alternatives that offer unified app experiences, but they lack the deep feature set and usability that Editors' Choice award-winning iWork possesses. Read the full review ››
Quickoffice Pro HD (for iPad)
Price: $19.99
Quickoffice Pro HD is light years ahead of Smart Office in terms of usability, and even boasts features that the Editors' Choice Award-winning iWork doesn't possess. It can use some improvements—such as more templates and better file sharing—but it's a competent mobile office suite that's both easy to use and easy on the wallet. Read the full review ››
Smart Office (for iPad)
Price: $9.99
The complete Apple iWork suite may cost three times as much as Smart Office, but if you want an intuitive experience don't hesitate to spend the extra cash. Smart Office will get the job done if you're looking to save a few chips (it's also cheaper than the very competent Quickoffice Pro HD), but be prepared to experience a handful of head-scratching usability issues. Read the full review ››