Microsoft moving Office online in duel with Google

[Brian Warkoczeski]

Microsoft moving Office online in duel with Google

By by Glenn Chapman

www.yahoo.com

July 13, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Microsoft on Monday said that the 2010 version of 
its popular Office software will feature online collaboration as the 
technology giant duels "in the cloud" with Internet titan Google.

Microsoft made the announcement at the opening of a Worldwide Partner 
Conference in New Orleans.

Next-generation Office, Visio, Project, and SharePoint Server programs 
to be released in the first half of next year are being given to tens of 
thousands of people selected to test the nearly completed software.

A key upgrade to widely-used Office is that online hosting will make it 
possible for users to access projects from any Internet-linked computers 
and to collaborate online in real time.

Office Web applications will be lightweight, browser versions of Word, 
PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote that provide access to documents from 
anywhere, according to Microsoft.

There will be online "co-authoring" capabilities in Word, PowerPoint and 
OneNote.

Microsoft's current version, Office 2007, allows online collaboration, 
but not in the real-time manner promised by its successor.

"We wanted to make sure when we brought applications to the Web we did 
it in a way that we can really delight customers and not sacrifice 
quality," Office group product manager Chris Bryant told AFP.

"We're really raising the bar; the level of expectation for what 
Web-based applications can do and how they work into real complements 
for the apps you use on the desktop, using personal computers."

The move comes as Google strives to lure computer users to text, 
spreadsheet, and other applications hosted online and offered as 
low-cost or free services.

The California firm's Google Apps are part of a growing online trend of 
offering software as services on the Internet, or "in the cloud," as 
opposed to people needing to buy, install and maintain programs on their 
own machines.

"The fact that Microsoft is developing it at all is a response to 
Google," said analyst Matt Rosoff of Directions On Microsoft, a private 
firm that tracks the Redmond, Washington-based technology firm.

"This is a move that they probably wouldn't have made if they didn't 
have to, but there is enough competition bubbling up that they thought 
they needed a response."

Office 2010 will also dramatically enhance video and picture 
capabilities in PowerPoint presentations, according to Bryant.

Office Web applications will be available through Windows Live; 
on-premises for Office annuity customers; and by paid subscription at 
Microsoft Online Services.

There are to be five versions of Office 2010, with prices yet to be 
disclosed.

Microsoft has thus far responded to the cloud computing trend with a 
"software plus services" approach that augments applications installed 
on personal machines with services hosted online.

People will be able to use Office 2010 purely as a service hosted 
online, but functionality will be less than when pairing it with Office 
applications installed on personal computers.

"If people were given full Office features online, why would they buy 
it?" Rosoff asked rhetorically.

"That is what has taken Microsoft so long to get there."

Microsoft has an edge with large corporations, where Office is 
widespread and often multi-year technology contracts are in place, 
according to Rosoff.

"Google has a better chance of getting traction with small businesses 
and consumers where Microsoft isn't so entrenched," Rosoff said.

The war between Microsoft and Google has been escalating, with Google 
last week announcing plans to create an open-source "Chrome OS" computer 
operating system tailored for netbooks.

Chrome OS will be a direct challenge to Windows operating systems at the 
heart of Microsoft's global software empire.