Microsoft to offer Web-based version of Office applications

MarketWatch ^ | Jul 13, 2009, 10:14 a.m. EST | John Letzing, MarketWatch

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Software giant comes under more pressure from Google's free services

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Microsoft Corp. on Monday made the latest edition of its Office software suite available for testing and plans to make key applications such as Word and Excel available over the Web -- acknowledging burgeoning competition from Internet giant Google Inc. and others.

Office is a dependable cash cow that Microsoft is leaning on as it increasingly shifts toward a business model partly based on the Internet. The company said at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans that "tens of thousands" of people will now be able to start testing the new version of the software, called Office 2010, as well as related, Internet-based Office Web applications.

The shift for some elements of Office to a Web-based format has long been anticipated, but it's nonetheless a significant move for a key product that typically comes pre-installed on a PC, or purchased as a shrink-wrapped disk.

For the quarter ended in March, Microsoft reported that the business division that includes Office contributed $4.5 billion of the company's total $13.6 billion revenue in the period - more than any other single unit.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Getting interesting.

[Erik Latranyi]

Office contributes quite a bit to MS’s bottom line. I wonder if the online version will have a fee with it....even nominal?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Article has this note..............

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Microsoft said that immediately after their release next year, Internet-hosted Office Web applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint will be available "at no cost" to some 400 million of the company's Web services account holders.

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So it's not exactly available for everyone....just those that already are in the Web Services account....whatever that is....

[stuartcr]

If this happened in a big way, they would get access to nearly everything people work on!!

[exist]

I miss the 90s.

[KarlInOhio]

So it's not exactly available for everyone....just those that already are in the Web Services account....whatever that is....

Maybe anyone with a Hotmail, MSN, Live.com or Bing account. I think I have six of those 400 million.

[naturalborn]

I started using google docs a couple years ago when I bought a new computer and didn’t want to upgrade to the latest version of Office. Now I have at least a hundred files that I’m totally dependent on google for. I don’t know what would happen if they lost my info or if they used their ability to tap into it.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

Google's Chrome OS: A Wispy Desktop Adversary?

[bcsco]

I don’t know what would happen if they lost my info or if they used their ability to tap into it.

Consider OpenOffice.org. It's an open source office suite comparable in many ways with Microsoft Office. In fact it can open, create and save Microsoft Office type documents. It's downloadable at Open Office Suite. And being open source, it's free.

[stuartcr]

It’s hard to tell sometimes, what is really going on in the depths of thewindows OS.

[Still Thinking]

They can have my locally installed apps and especially my data when they pry them from my cold dead hard drive / NAS, respectively.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Kind of a side note:

Office 2010 hits testers minus Google punch

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Summer fun with online Office apps promised

By Gavin Clarke in New Orleans

13th July 2009 13:42 GMT

WPC The next version of Microsoft's Office is due to be released for testing today, but you won't be able to get your hands on the web-based edition of Office 2010 just yet.

Office Web applications won't be released for testing even though they have reached the same technical preview engineering milestone as Office 2010 and related products. Microsoft did not give a reason for the gap, but said they'd be released separately for testing later this summer.

In lieu of testing, Microsoft will announce that once the Office Web applications are finished they will be delivered in three ways.

Office Web applications will be made available to individuals and organizations for free via Windows Live, on premises to business users on its Software Assurance program, and to customers as a hosted service that's managed by Microsoft's Online Services unit.

The news will come at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, where it will say it's reducing the number of Office packages from eight to five through consolidation with Office 2010.

[T Minus Four]

Hey, look at this!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

RE:

Windows Live

From wikipedia...

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On January 23, 2009, Microsoft announced that Office Live services will be converged into Windows Live services.[

[USMCPOP]

More info:

http://gizmodo.com/5313285/microsoft-office-2010-web-apps-to-be-free-testing-starts-today

http://workspace.officelive.com/en-us/office-web-applications

Presumably anyone with a free Live account will get access.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks...from that first link:

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This announcement is paired with news that the actual suite, shown in the gallery above, has hit the "Technical Preview" stage, and that it'll be available for testing to tens of thousands of users, albeit by invitation

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Create your Windows Live ID

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It gets you into all Windows Live services—and other places you see Windows Live ID All information is required.

If you use Hotmail, Messenger, or Xbox LIVE, you already have a Windows Live ID.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See updates.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See updates...