Microsoft says next Office suite will go on the Web

Microsoft says next Office suite will go on the Web

 

Oct 28,2008

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The next upgrade of Office business software from Microsoft Corp will include a version that edits word processing documents and spreadsheets inside a Web browser, the software maker said on Tuesday.

The online version of Office, which includes the Word and Excel programs, aims to prevent competitors such as Google Inc from pecking away at Microsoft's dominance in software used by office workers and expand the market for one of its most profitable products.

Microsoft would not comment on when it plans to release the next version of Office, dubbed "Office 14," but in the past it has shipped an upgrade every two to three years. It introduced the current Office suite of programs in January 2007.

The company said Office Web applications will offer lightweight, online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint presentation software and the OneNote collaboration program. Office files can be managed and edited on a normal desktop computer, a Web browser or a mobile phone.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has seen a wave of competitors from Web start-ups to Google offering word processing, presentation and spreadsheet software over the Internet for free with advertising or a monthly subscription.

"Nobody, none of our competitors, will do as good of a job on the phone, the browser or the PC," said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president at Microsoft's Office business.

The company announced the news at the Professional Developer's Conference, Microsoft's annual gathering of engineers to detail the company's future plans.

Microsoft has mostly resisted the push to make its Office suite available online, choosing to sell licenses to run the applications locally on a single computer. It allows users to share files through Office Live, which is free with advertising or available with more functions for a monthly subscription.

Google Apps, a free suite of Web services aimed at business users, includes calendar, collaboration, e-mail and messaging software, as well as online spreadsheets and word processing.

Microsoft's announcement did not surprise David Girouard, president of Google's enterprise division, who saw the move as an endorsement of its business model for running programs in its powerful data centers and delivering those applications as services over the Web.

"It's an acknowledgment of all the progress we've made with Google Apps in the last 18 months," said Girouard, noting that Google has 10 million business users running Google Apps.

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Microsoft said the new Office Web applications will be available for consumers on Office Live, although it did not disclose whether it would be paid for by advertising or subscriptions.

For large corporate customers, they can either pay for a license to run those applications online using their own computer servers, or run those programs in Microsoft's data centers for a monthly fee.

Microsoft said users will be able to view Word documents or Excel spreadsheets in the same way regardless of whether they are using a Web browser or on a standard desktop. The online Office version also has a similar look and feel to the desktop applications, albeit with less functions.

The new Office Web applications will work on Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple Inc's Safari browsers. They will be available for a technical preview sometime this year, according to Microsoft.

Capossela sees the applications expanding the base of Office users, notably employees who do not work on a computer sitting on a desk -- nurses, truck drivers or factory workers -- but require some business software accessible over the Web.

It also offers, Capossela notes, the opportunity to make money in the form of advertising or subscriptions for a software product that is heavily pirated.

"We have a huge number of users. Very few pay us. There is a huge opportunity for us in this space because we can get revenue from people we are not getting anything from," said Capossela, who did not elaborate on the effect the new service would have on Office's profit margins.

In the September quarter, Microsoft's Office business division was the biggest revenue and profit driver, outgaining even its bread-and-butter Windows unit.

In the previous fiscal year, the Office unit generated $18.9 billion in revenue and $12.4 billion in profit.

(Editing by Derek Caney and Andre Grenon)

Microsoft says Office unfazed by Google threat

Nov 23, 2008

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

SEATTLE (Reuters) - One of the two new heads of Microsoft Corp.'s Office software team downplayed the threat from Google Inc.'s  Web-based word processing and spreadsheet applications, saying they are unlikely to appeal to corporate customers.

Antoine Leblond, who became co-leader of the Office group in June, said Google was the latest in a long line of challengers to the Office software suite, which includes Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook e-mail and PowerPoint presentations.

"The simple argument that 'this is good enough for 90 percent of what we do' has fallen on its face over and over and over again," Leblond told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. "When it comes to mission critical things and key pieces of how people run their businesses, the threshold is higher."

Leblond and Kurt DelBene took over the Office group after Steven Sinofsky left to head up the Windows team. Leblond oversees what he calls "old school" applications like Word, Excel and PowerPoint, while DelBene oversees the new SharePoint Web collaboration software and other server-based programs.

Microsoft will release the long-awaited Office upgrade to business customers next week along with its new Windows Vista operating system, which has been more than five years in the making. These products are the core of a broad product upgrade cycle aimed at restoring the software giant's growth.

Microsoft believes new Web services will work in tandem with PC-installed software, a vision that differs from that of "software as a service" advocates, such as Salesforce.com and Google, who expect services delivered over the Web to eventually replace software that resides on local PCs.

It's a bet with big stakes, considering Office accounts for nearly a third of Microsoft's total revenue and half its profits, and particularly since the company has been unable to replicate its desktop success on the Internet.

Already the clear leader in Web search, Google has in recent months pushed out new applications to rival individual Office programs, including e-mail for organizations, employee Web pages, scheduling, spreadsheets and word processing.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has dismissed the notion that it is competing with Office, saying his company is focused on simple applications with an emphasis on sharing that are aimed at consumers and small business users.

"Free software has an appealing ring to it, but free software has been around for a while now and it turns out free doesn't trump the software doing what people need it to do," said Leblond, a 17-year veteran of the Office team.

Microsoft's new Office Live is an example of its "software plus services" approach. It lets small businesses set up Web sites, company-branded e-mail and Web applications to allow project management and collaboration. It works with Office but the programs are largely different from those familiar to desktop PC users.

The latest upgrade, Office 2007, will be available to consumers in January, but Leblond said don't necessarily expect a huge spike in demand, as adoption patterns have changed.

"We went from the world of 15 years ago where we would release the software and people would be sleeping outside the stores to go buy the boxes the next day to a much more regular rhythm," said Leblond, adding that customers now base purchases more on multi-year technology cycles.