Microsoft's Office for iPad apps notch 27M downloads in 46 days

In an announcement at the TechEd Conference on Monday, Microsoft's General Manager for Office Julia White said its iPad suite, which includes native Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps, has hit the 27 million download mark 46 days after its debut in March, reports Business Insider

The news comes after the Redmond, Wash.-based company announced another milestone for the software suite in early April, when it was learned that the collective iPad apps were downloaded 12 million times in one week.

The hotly-anticipated group of apps rocketed to the top of Apple's iOS App Store charts one day after launch and held their high ranking positions for some time. As of this writing, Word is still the fourth most-downloaded free iPad app, while Excel and PowerPoint have dropped to number 22 and 26 in the rankings, respectively.

Being so-called "freemium" apps, Microsoft requires users to purchase an in-app subscription to unlock full software capabilities. For Office, users can view documents for free, but need to have an Office 365 subscription to make edits.

Apple is taking the usual 30 percent cut of all subscription sign-ups, as is the company's policy for all in-app purchases. Office 365 subscriptions cost $99 per year or $9.99 per month.