OnLive Desktop for the iPad was released at CES 2012 a few weeks ago and allows you to work with Microsoft Office documents natively on your iPad.

The principle behind OnLive Desktop is simple: you sign up for a free account with them and download the free iPad app, after which you can access a Windows 7 virtual machine from your device. This environment is full Windows 7, although it is structured primarily to allow you to run three full Microsoft Office apps to work on documents.

Firing up OnLive Desktop on the iPad presents a full-screen Windows 7 desktop, with access to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. These are the full Windows Office apps, running in a virtual Windows 7 environment on the company's servers. The apps and the Windows 7 environment makes good use of the touch interface on the iPad, including an onscreen keyboard.

What makes this service and iPad app so unique is that it allows you to run Windows and Microsoft Office, even if you don't own either one. The free service gives you full access to the Office apps, and up to 2 GB of free document storage. A 'paid for' service with greater storage capacity is in the works for those who need more space.

Using Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint in OnLive Desktop is just like using them in Windows, because that's what you are doing. The iPad is just the window into the OnLive system.

OnlLives Blog : http://blog.onlive.com/tag/ipad/