While Chromebooks with Play Store access are a common occurrence now, it appears that such models have been blocked from downloading the Microsoft Office apps. The ASUS Flip has been confirmed to do that and we detail the controversy below.
Microsoft isn’t to blame here apparently for the fact that ASUS Chromebook Flip owners are reporting that apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote are showing a message saying that the apps were “unsupported on the device”. Interestingly, other Chromebooks aren’t affected by this, such as the Acer R13 Chromebook for example.
There’s a theory saying that Microsoft is going to let Chrome OS users get the Office suite, but support is blocked because Microsoft is working with Google to improve the experience. Keep in mind that Google Play on Chrome OS is in beta, so kinks are being ironed out. A restriction is still going to happen, as Chromebooks with screens larger than 10.1 inches are going to only get a restricted version of the suite.
This means that without an Office 365 subscription, one won’t be able to edit, create or print documents. So, the diagonal is key here. Luckily, Google’s Sheets, Slides and Docs are solid replacements.
