Web based Microsoft Office 2010 to be launched soon

The global software maker Microsoft will launch web-based version of its Office software next year. Office 2010 designed to compete with Google’s free online Docs will be made up of light weight versions of usual applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, the BBC reports.

Microsoft Windows Live customers who are estimated to be more than 400 million in the world can use Office 2010 web version at no cost, Microsoft said.

Later this year, Office web applications will be available to the testers. It is reported that the beta version will be released for the public at the end of this year and the final version of Office for the PCs would hit the market in the first half of next year.

Microsoft Office 2010. Image: pathing.com

Microsoft’s announcement came just a week after Google said that it would launch its free operating system , Google Chrome OS next year. Interestingly, Microsoft launched its search engine, Bing a month ago. Google also has its own web browser, Chrome, perceived as a competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE).

All these events clearly show the growing rivalry between the software and the search engine giants and their attempts to tread upon each other’s business territory.

Emil Protalinksi in her blog Arcs Technica says Microsoft is a traditional software company which ‘is responding to the ‘threat of the cloud’ to its core business by embracing it.’

Microsoft started moving its applications to the web with the introduction of its search engine, Bing in June, many analysts feel. ‘Now we are seeing that through Office, ‘ says analyst Katherine Egbert of Jeffries & Co.

However, the free offering of the web based version of Office would make a dent in Microsoft’s revenues, the Wall Street Journal said. The revenues of Microsoft may fall by £2.46bn, it reported.

But, tbe BBC quoted Bryant, Microsoft’s group product manager as saying,
“We believe the web has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity.”

He further said:
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,”