hello access indians! greetings to you all! is this announcement
from the software giant a direct conpetition to google? read this
article from the BBC news. Microsoft Office takes to the web
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Office 2010 will enhance video and picture capabilities in PowerPoint
Microsoft has fired its latest salvo at Google, announcing a free
web-based version of its Office software.
Office 2010 will include lightweight versions of Word, Excel,
PowerPoint and OneNote when it ships next year.
The new web offering will compete with Google's free online Docs suite
launched three years ago.
Last week Google took aim at Windows with news of a free operating
system while in June Microsoft introduced a new search engine called
Bing.
"We believe the web has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity,"
Microsoft's group product manager for Office told the BBC.
"We have over a half a billion customers worldwide and what we hear
from them is that they really want the power of the web without
compromise. They want collaboration without compromise.
"And what they tell us today is that going to the web often means they
sacrifice fidelity, functionality and the quality of the content they
care about. We knew that if and when we were ever going to bring
applications into a web environment, we needed to do the hard work
first because we hold such a high bar," said Mr Bryant.
Microsoft said that 400 million customers who were Windows Live
consumers would have access to the Office web applications at no cost.
At a conference for business partners in New Orleans, Microsoft
announced an early release of web apps to thousands of testers later
this year.
At the end of the year the company expects to release a proper public
beta for the software and ship a final version off to PC makers in the
first half of 2010.
'Conversion'
Analysts have mostly given the thumbs-up to Microsoft for moving some
of its applications to the web, even if it might cost them dearly.
Excel spreadsheets can now run in the browser
The Wall Street Journal has estimated that offering free online
software could "put at risk as much at $4bn (£2.46bn) in revenue".
One analyst told the paper that despite such losses, it could be a canny move.
"Making sure people are still using Microsoft products is more
important" in the short term than risking revenue, explained Piper
Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
"They need to keep people using Office," he said.
"Microsoft is finally making the conversion through the web-based
world. First, we saw that through Bing. Now we are seeing that through
Office, " said Jeffries & Co analyst Katherine Egbert.
"The software giant has woken up," wrote Emil Protalinksi of online
blog Ars Technica.
"It is promising to know that such a traditional software company is
responding to the 'threat of the cloud' to its core business by
embracing it."
Investors appeared to like Microsoft's move and boosted shares by
almost 3.8% higher to close at $23.23 (£14.33).
Rivalry
Microsoft's announcement is being seen as the latest move in a
tit-for-tat rivalry between two tech giants as it and Google
increasingly make efforts to encroach on one another's turf.
When Google announced its Chrome operating system last week, the
blogosphere watched and waited for Microsoft to react.
Chrome OS is seen as a direct challenge to market leader Windows
Mr Bryant stuck to the company line when he spoke to BBC News.
"I haven't seen the product. I think it's not a trivial engineering
investment to go and build an operating system," he said. "Of course
it is interesting and there is a lot of talk but until we see the
product, it's hard to say what kind of impact it will have.
"We can't afford to get wrapped up in hype or buzz or noise because
really our customers depend on us every single day."
Microsoft's business software division, which includes Office, made
$9.3 bn (£5.74bn) in profit from $14.3 bn(£8.82bn) in sales during the
first three-quarters of its 2009 fiscal year.
with warm regards, solomon. [email protected] SkypeID: solomonkarur
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