When it comes to wrangling the power of the cloud, few companies have done it as well as OnLive, the folks who have revolutionizing online gaming. Thankfully for us, they aren’t going to stop there. On Thursday, a new iPad app arrives called OnLive Desktop, which brings the full Windows 7 desktop experience to Cupertino’s beloved tablet -- and it’s free.

OnLive, Inc. has announced the company’s leap from cloud-based gaming to cloud-based computing with the arrival of OnLive Desktop, a free app for the iPad which lands in the App Store this Thursday, January 12. Tapping into the company’s powerful instant-action cloud gaming technology, OnLive Desktop will deliver a “full-featured, media-rich Windows 7” desktop experience hosted on remote services, complete with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

“OnLive Desktop is the first app to deliver a no-compromise, media-rich Windows desktop experience to iPad, opening up powerful new possibilities for consumers and businesses,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive Founder and CEO. “iPad users will now be able to simply and securely view and edit cloud-hosted documents with full-featured Windows desktop applications like Microsoft Office, just as if they were using a local high-performance PC. Multi-touch gestures respond instantly and smoothly, while HD videos, animations and PC video games -- never before usable on a remote desktop -- play seamlessly.”

Perhaps the most exciting news about OnLive Desktop is that the app is absolutely free and comes with 2GB of secure cloud storage and access to a full Windows 7 install pre-populated with MS Office, popular utilities and touch-based games. But this isn’t simply a way to access Windows 7 from the iPad -- it’s a full touch-based experience which taps into a Windows touchscreen keyboard as well as handwriting recognition and even a Bluetooth keyboard.

U.S. customers can download the free OnLive Desktop from the App Store beginning Thursday, with a release soon after for those across the pond in the U.K. A free OnLive account is required, which anxious users can sign up for today on the company’s website. The app will soon spread to Android, PC and Mac platforms with external monitor and TV support (by way of the OnLive MicroConsole hardware), and the company plans to soon unleash OnLive Desktop Pro which adds 50GB of cloud storage and priority access for only $9.99 per month.

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