It did not take half a day for Microsoft Office for iPad to propel itself to the top of the list of free iPad apps in the Apple App Store, VentureBeat reported.

The rankings on App Annie showed that iPad users didn't mind the exceptionally long wait for the app when speculations that Microsoft would be releasing the product started two years ago. Less than 12 hours after the rollout, Microsoft Word for iPad ranked first worldwide on March 27, 2014. Next on the list of free iPad apps worldwide is Excel for iPad while the third spot is held by PowerPoint for iPad. Microsoft OneNote for iPad placed seventh on the list of widely popular free iPad apps, the report said.  

The recent figures aren't an indication if Microsoft Office for iPad is going to be popular for the long haul but the performance of the software giant's products today on the App Store is impressive, the report said.

According to an earlier VentureBeat report on the launch, Microsoft will be offering the Office for iPad under the freemium business model. The reading and presentation features will be given for free in the iPad app. Those who have Office 365 subscriptions, however, will be able to use all the features of the suite. In addition, the software giant also unveiled an Enterprise Mobility Suite specially for IT to allow them to handle their devices using Office, the report said.

In a press event, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said the launch of Microsoft Office for iPad merges mobile and the cloud. It is also one of the innovations going on in the company. The move is ideal, too, considering that the company's own Surface tablet didn't really receive a warm sales reception. Bringing its well known apps to the highly-popular iPad is something that Microsoft should have done way back, VentureBeat reported.