Microsoft announces browser-based Office apps
Published: 28 Oct 2008 18:09 GMT
After years of questioning the value of net-based productivity applications, Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it will offer new versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint that can run from within a standard web browser.
Microsoft will use its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles to show off browser-based versions of its Office programs.
In an interview, Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's Business Division, said that the browser-based editing capabilities are being developed in conjunction with the next version of Office, known as Office 14.
Microsoft will not say when Office 14 will arrive, but Elop said that a technology preview of the browser-based products will come later this year and that a beta version will be released in 2009.
Microsoft will offer browser-based Word, Excel and PowerPoint in two ways. For consumers, they will be offered via Microsoft's Office Live website, while businesses will be able to access browser-based Office capabilities through Microsoft's SharePoint Server product.
The company has been pushed into this arena by Google, which has been offering its free Google Apps programs for some time. In competing with Google, Microsoft is touting the ability to use a familiar user interface, as well as the fact that all of a document's characteristics are preserved.
"If you go into some competitive products right now and take a Word document in and then spit it out afterwards, it's unrecognisable," Elop said. "You lose a lot of fidelity."
Elop said that not all of the editing capabilities of the desktop products are in the browser versions. "[We are characterising] the editing… as lightweight editing," he said.
Although Google Apps is mainly popular among consumers, it has started to attract attention from corporate customers.
Google Apps has received interest from Procter & Gamble, which only decided to stick with Office after persuasion on the part of Microsoft. Part of the pitch, Elop said, included Microsoft offering details on its plans for the web-based versions of the Office programs.
"This was part of the conversation, absolutely," Elop said. "We have been sharing with customers, under varying circumstances, to a greater or lesser extent."
Although Elop didn't specify names, he said Microsoft has found itself in a competitive situation with Google in other business accounts as well.
Credit: Next version of Office heads to the browser from CNET News
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