Office Web Apps public beta
Having confirmed a launch date for the Office 2010 productivity suite, Albie Bester, Information Worker Lead at Microsoft SA, said that the new Office Webs Apps service will be going live in June 2010. Bester pegged public beta testing of the online applications at early January.
The Office Web Apps are a big move from Microsoft into the realm of online productivity applications, competing directly with offerings from Google. These stripped down versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote “will function in all major browsers – Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari – and will work within these browsers on all operating systems,” explained Bester.
The Web Apps will be available to anyone with a free Windows Live account, and documents can be stored, shared and collaborated on via the Windows Live SkyDrive service.
The Web Apps can also be licensed to be hosted on a company’s local SharePoint server. SharePoint is a centralised document hosting and management system. With SharePoint 2010, users can access shared company documents from any location, through the Web Apps frontend.
Discussing the adoption of SkyDrive and SharePoint services in South Africa, Bester said: “We haven’t been pushing it hard. It’s there for people to use, and is growing by word of mouth. We still see the corporate environment concerned about putting their data in to the ‘cloud,’ and concerned over whom will be able to access that data. We see it as more of a service for small businesses and social groups.”
When asked if the Web Apps offering would cannibalise sales of the Office 2010 desktop software package, Bester said: “I don’t think so; maybe only in a few cases. People will still want to work from their own machines, without relying on an internet connection.
“The Web Apps are designed to be an extension of the Office suite, such as when you don’t have access to your machine, and need to make a document change or draft. If you are the type of person that only wants to create simple documents, then it is not a huge concern to us – we see it as adding value to our other products,” he concluded.
Office 2010 web apps – discussion
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