Nadella brings MS Office suiteto Apple iPad

Microsoft Corp's new CEO, Satya Nadella, on Thursday unveiled Office for rival Apple's iPad in a polished debut that set him apart from his energetic predecessor.

Microsoft Corp's new CEO, Satya Nadella, on Thursday unveiled Office for rival Apple's iPad in a polished debut that set him apart from his energetic predecessor, while signalling his plans to make mobile apps the priority at the world's largest software company.

"It's a beautiful set of applications," said Hyderabad-born Nadella, only the third CEO in the software giant's 39-year history after founder Bill Gates and Steve Balmer.

Executives demonstrated a new "touch-first" version of Office crafted for the iPad, available for download as a free app, though a subscription is needed to let users create or edit documents rather than just read them. Significantly, they did not demonstrate any software on Windows machines.

This "represents a moment where the new Microsoft bids goodbye to the old Microsoft," technology site CNet said on what it called a "calculated risk".