Microsoft Unveils New Office Suite With Focus on Cloud

One of the biggest selling software for Microsoft is the Office Suite. Some analysts claim it makes them as much revenues as Windows does. With the combination of Office tools and Windows OS, Microsoft has had a pretty strong hold over the PC market in the past two decades.

The New Microsoft Office suite was unveiled by Microsoft today. It will launch the Office 2013 suite along with Office 365 Subscription options integrated with SkyDrive to keep its current customers, who might be increasingly looking at Google Apps as an option.

Microsoft Office 2013

New Microsoft Office Features

  • It is apparent that New Microsoft Office will best work with Windows 8. This is the reason for its focus on touch screens. It also has new Windows 8 style applications for Office like OneNote and Lync.
  • Touch screen and Windows 8 is what Microsoft hope will get people using Office suite on phones and tablets running Windows 8.
  • Google Apps is built into the idea of storing and synchronizing documents on the cloud. Microsoft has struggled here despite being the market leader. New Office version will allow saving documents to SkyDrive by default. It will sync documents across different devices.
  • Office 365 Home Premium subscription service will include 20 GB SkyDrive Storage.
  • Finally Office subscription models will have a social layer. It has Yammer which is a private social network for businesses. It will also integrate with Skype, which allows 60 minutes free calls every month.

The Office 2013 versions of Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook will be well appreciated but how Microsoft leverages the Office 365 subscription services will be interesting.

This is where it will have to attract small businesses and home users who are more prone to move away to the cheaper Google Apps.

It is also unclear if Office will show up on other platforms like iOS. Despite the excitement around Microsoft’s Surface tablets, I doubt they will sell in their millions anytime soon. iPad will still remain the leader here and it won’t be a bad idea to have Microsoft release a version for iPad users who might be using Office on their desktops.

You can get a preview of the new Office tools from Microsoft at the link below. Do drop in your comments

Link: Microsoft Office Preivew