When Google made the announcement of Chrome OS last week we knew that Microsoft had something planned for toady, and they did. At the Worldwide Partner Conference 2009 (WDC) they unveiled Office 2010 along with a web-based solution that offers a lot of basic editing capabilities for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files.
The thing that I was the most interested in was browser compatibility. I didn’t see anything about it in their press release, but then I came across the video that I embedded below. In the video they say that the Web Apps work in IE, Firefox, and Safari.
Now what about hosting? Here’s what their press release says in regards to that:
Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering.
Right now Office 2010 is only available to select testers, but all of this will be released in the first half of 2010. Below I’ve embedded the video (a little boring) that Microsoft published in regards to the Web Apps as well as some screenshots I grabbed from the video.
Microsoft Word 2010 Web:
Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Web:
Microsoft Excel 2010 Web:
Microsoft OneNote 2010 Web:
Wow that is amazing! I have always been a Microsoft supporter, they are responsible for the fastest growth is technology ever, and they keep suprising us till this day
My question is, with all of Google’s muscle (and money!), why aren’t they doing more to push Chrome?
I think they are trying to grow the product into something a little more mature. They also need to get some features into the browser that would make people go “wow,” but right now it focuses primarily on doing the basic tasks really well. I’m sure they’ve got all kinds of good stuff coming though.
Microsoft has products that no one has even come close to in terms of usability and integration, Viva Microsoft!!