RSSOffice Web Apps to be offered free to all Windows Live users
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published September 17, 2009, 2:55 PM
This afternoon, a Microsoft spokesperson told Betanews that the company is now beginning the process of notifying selected participants that they have been accepted for inclusion in the company's Technical Preview program for Office Web Apps. But in another huge example of burying the lead, a blog post that went live minutes ago from Windows Live General Manager Brian Hall states that the complete Web Apps suite, once officially released, will be "available" to all Windows Live users.
As the spokesperson confirmed to Betanews, Hall's implication is accurate: Everyday users of Windows Live services (which are already free) and who have SkyDrive storage on those services (the first 25 GB of which are free) will have the entire suite available for use from any modern Web browser. A video released today showed Excel Web App (that's the formal name for it now) running on a Mozilla Firefox 3.5 browser, and on a Windows 7 platform. We're still awaiting word on non-Windows browsers.
There will be no cost, the spokesperson told us this afternoon, for users of Windows Live SkyDrive. When the Web Apps suite is released, all of them will notice the addition of a Documents tab, from which they'll be able to launch Office documents. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will be the first three in the suite, although Microsoft confirmed today that an online version of OneNote will be next.
Here's the specific quote from Hall: "Over time, as the final version is released, the Office Web Apps will become available to all 500 million+ users of Hotmail, Messenger, and other Windows Live services."
So how will Microsoft make money from this? Businesses will be able to subscribe to a version that the company spokesperson described as providing "more security and control." Unlike Windows Live, this version will be hosted directly through Microsoft Online Services, where it's presumed availability and uptime are guaranteed along with safety and stability.
For business users -- especially those that are already hosting SharePoint sites -- there will be the ability to host Office Web Apps on their own sites, for their own users, potentially as an alternative to deploying the physical software on users' computers directly.
"All Office volume Licensing customers will have access to the Office Web Apps that they can run themselves on premises," the spokesperson told Betanews. "This competitive differentiator is an example of the choice we are offering our customers. More than 90 million Office annuity customers will have access to Office Web Apps at launch."
3:15 pm EDT September 17, 2009 · Betanews received some clarifications from Microsoft later in the day. First of all, additional storage space beyond the first 25 GB will not be available through Windows Live SkyDrive. That might have been a good extra source of revenue for the company for Office Web Apps users, but for now, the spokesperson told us Microsoft is merely considering leasing extra space in the future.
Businesses that are looking for more useful storage options, the spokesperson suggested, may consider investing in SharePoint Online. There, multiple subscribing users are entered into a collective "pool," the size of which is 250 MB per user.
The spokesperson also confirmed information about platforms: The current build of Office Web Apps for the technical preview has been confirmed to run on Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8 (for Windows); Firefox 3.5 on Windows, Mac, and Linux; and Safari 4 for Mac (not for Windows). Google Chrome was not listed as a supported platform, perhaps for obvious reasons.
That doesn't mean users can't give it a shot, we're told: "If customers prefer to use another browser they should still give the Web Apps a try. While we cannot officially support all browsers, customers will not be blocked from using them. It is a goal of the Web Apps to have broad compatibility and reach," the spokesperson said.
The first public demonstrations of Office Web Apps reveals a few more items than we saw demonstrated last year at PDC, though not many. Most notably, we see the full set of ribbon controls for PowerPoint Web App, which was not ready for prime time last October. We also see evidence that some of the incomplete Excel functions such as conditional cell formatting have been worked out, along with evidence that the "BackStage" -- the replacement for the Office button in Office 2007 -- now has a functional counterpart. An abbreviated menu bar (or rather, a category bar for items collected together by the ribbon) now contains a brightly-colored "File" category, which both resembles the BackStage control and also represents the old-style menu bar functionality from Office 2003 and earlier.
hey really good to hear this news.. thanks for this information..
http://www.i-netsolution.com
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|I'll be using this when it become available and if there is no better alternative, meaning if I am unable to find a better free alternative that will open, save and format all my documents correctly sent and received to and from my customers I think it will be a brilliant addition to Live! The reason why I still wont use OpenOffice is because customers find it unprofessional when you send them a document that looks and performs differently in their copy of MS Office than it does when saved in OO.
I'll follow like all the other sheep when it suits my business - when Google's documents and Microsoft's Office documents work perfectly in each other applications I'll use the fasted, easiest and most reliable application going. It's so simple and all good fun... let the battles commence :-)
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|If you need a document that looks the exact same, Word and OpenOffice documents aren't the way to go in the first place; you should use a format that is not intended for editing, like PDF. If noneditability isn't your goal, with proper structuring (the use of document styles, not just making random text bold and big instead of using the "Heading" style and a theme you like, for example) a DOC(X) or ODT can be made to behave more or less as you expect, even if it's not pixel-perfect on every different machine you try (which is not the point, anyway--because if you wanted that you'd have used another format).
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|Whilst coming from a technical background I agree with you 100% on the use of PDF's for noneditable content and properly style structured documents for editable content the idealism changes when you have have many customers, suppliers and your own staff who need to be able to create, send and received editable documents quickly, in a package they are familiar with, idealism goes out the window or becomes difficult to enforce.
While being able to migrate your own company software policy is doable, preaching to suppliers and especially customers to do the same is impossible, at least in our business. The type of business we are in is tantamount to being a retailer who sells one off products and we may never see or deal with that customer again but we need to send rich professional looking editable documents, so it needs to be right first time and because nearly every supplier and most customers we deal with has MS Office it is just easier all round to produce and edit the documents in the "de facto" standard office suite because it will work 99% of the time.
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|Just curious, is the guy in the YouTube video doing his own version of sign language or something? His hands are so distracting I can barely pay attention to what he's saying. :)
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|have to wait and see what this can really do...and where Silverturd comes in. Does is save to ODF by default or does it use the proprietary MSOOXML? Did they fix their worst in the world ODF implementation? Does it come totally encrusted with Ads like their new Zune HD? Does it work in sunlight, unlike the Zune HD?
Lot of questions...right now it is vaporware.
For me, this changes nothing...i will continue using Google Docs as it does everything i need and more. And I sure as heck am not creating a crappy Hotmail, MSN, Live, Bing, whatever they are calling it this week, account.
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|How someone can repeatedly go on and on about a product they hate is downright sad..Anyways onto the rebuttal
1. The only ads are in the free apps offered by MS which is when they initially load
2. The Zune HD works fine in sunlight - you can turn up the brightness - the default is medium - Now direct sunlight MOST devices do not work when the sun is blaring right down on the device, FYI.
3. Its Live, its been live since at least 2005
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|love making cluessless fanboys look like idiots....
"1. The only ads are in the free apps offered by MS which is when they initially load"
No, there are ads in _all_ software loading screens which adds about 15-30 seconds to each app (yeah i know there are only like three apps available in total versus 75k for the iPhone/iPod). LOL.
"2. The Zune HD works fine in sunlight - you can turn up the brightness - the default is medium - Now direct sunlight MOST devices do not work when the sun is blaring right down on the device, FYI."
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/17/zune-hd-review/ - take a look at the fourth picture down. Yeah, it works real well in bright rooms or outdoors. LOL. Makes sense why all the Microsoft Zune HD early demos were in dark rooms.
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|You know, I seem to have the same issues with my iPhone. Ads in all of the free programs and in iTunes when I go to look for new aps or music. I also have to turn up the brightness on my iPhone in sunlight. Gee, sounds familiar.
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|http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/17/zune-hd-review/ - take a look at the fourth picture down. Yeah, it works real well in bright rooms or outdoors. LOL. Makes sense why all the Microsoft Zune HD early demos were in dark rooms.
And, they are using the default settings, in the comments there are plenty of people who have it and know if you turn the brightness up you can see it.
And it reads DIRECT SUNLIGHT which my point stands most devices do not work in direct sunlight with the default settings...
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|How does an article about Office Live apps have anything to do with ZuneHD? Seriously, would it kill you to stay on topic for once? Or, even better, would it kill you to actually talk about something you know rather than your delusional reality?
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|It is called being objective...asking questions. Rather than saying OMG, Microsoft's highly proprietary super expensive office suite is coming to a web browser and is going to roxxers!!!!!!!!
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|This has me salivating...
Last winter, I dropped my live e-mail account and switched to another web based e-mail provider. This is enough to get me back to a live e-mail account/live services. I've been using live workspace for a group project that allows my partner and I to work on the same files without the worry that either one of us is using an outdated file. Saves time and is productive.
This should hopefully save us time in that now we will not have to worry about the documents downloading temporarily to our desktop when we want to edit them since we have to use our native copy of Office.
As for the money aspect, we will all still have to buy Office anyways, at least for a while. I do not exactly have an internet connection in the middle of the ocean, on most planes, etc... So in the end, people will still purchase Microsoft Office.
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|Meh...
There will be an "offline" hack. Guaranteed. ;)
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|Probably... I'll just keep getting it from work anyways.
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|I wonder how long it is before someone cries foul and tries to kick of a legal argument\debate related to this?
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|If Web Apps run in Opera (yes, I'm an Opera fanboy) I'll switch as soon as possible, despite being a Micro$oft product.
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|^this^
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|That you, Sturgess?
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|Google Docs are *dead* unless they do something *now*.
This will blow everything they currently have out of the water, as well as just about every other online office suite or app I've encountered.
Great news, especially if it forces the competition to start getting off their collective arses.
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|This is very true. I am extremely unlikely to use it much though as I own the real version of Office and frankly see no need for this other than where I'm stuck in a situation without Office, or I need to collaborate on something (neither of which happen often at all).
However, it looks a great deal more polished than Google Docs.
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|Google docs Premier is $50/year per user.
While MS hasn't announced pricing yet, their "Business Productivity Online Standard Suite" alone, without client apps, is $180/year. ( source: http://www.microsoft.com...iness-productivity.mspx )
You haven't factored in the cost of the OS, the Office Suite(required) and other tools.
And tell over 1 million businesses that already use Google docs that it is dead...
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|1.) Office Online will be free. You don't have to use the "BPOSS"...just add your team to your contants/shares.
2.) Most folks already *have* the OS/Office Suite. (No office suite is required, by the way, nor is Windows, for that matter...)
FTFA: "The current build of Office Web Apps for the technical preview has been confirmed to run on Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8 (for Windows); Firefox 3.5 on Windows, Mac, and Linux; and Safari 4 for Mac (not for Windows)."
3.) 1 Million businesses? Really? Show me where you got that number, because I highly doubt all but the most ignorant among them would put confidential/identifiable business data on Google's servers.
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|1) Free for home/consumer users. Just like Google docs are free for home users.
2)They may have the Office Suite, but that doesn't they will want to pay the Office tax in perpetuity.
3) http://www.google.com/ap...exchange_resources.html
The source for 1.75 million businesses is Google.
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|1.) ...and Google Docs is missing most of the features that would actually make it useful. Which do you think the majority of home users would prefer?
2.) Your point? It is *not* required. There is no cost for home users and no *additional* cost companies with Office SA.
3.) So the source is the company promoting it? Gee... That's not biased at all, is it? ;)
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|I'm not sure of 1 million businesses, but there are quite a few. I remember reading articles about some city governments that have moved over to Google and many colleges. (Mostly the liberal one's that thing Microsoft is of the Devil, but for some reason don't equate Google the same way).
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|PC_Tool, none of what you have said really disputes that Google Docs is an alternative to Office online, it is cheaper (because Office SA is expensive, especially over years and years.) and companies ARE using it, it ISN'T going away. As for questioning Google's numbers, they are bound by SEC/accounting rules not to intentionally flub numbers like that, so I have no reason to believe it is an exaggeration or lie. We could say the same for Microsoft and any number of things (such as the real number of hotmail accounts.)
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|@PC_Tool :
"1.) ...and Google Docs is missing most of the features that would actually make it useful. "
What features are those? I use Google Docs for everything. I even have my resume on it. It is totally useful, plus Google can export to ODF and they _actually_ have a working ODF format unlike Microsoft.
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|mjm010101:
...I didn't see anything that said it wasn't an alternative. Just the implication that it wasn't a good one at this point and would not be relevant if they don't increase their functionality to match or beat Microsoft's Apps.
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|"The current build of Office Web Apps for the technical preview has been confirmed to run on Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8 (for Windows);"
YES! No IE 6 support from Microsoft themselves!
This can only be a good thing.
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|Of course. Killing off old technology makes them money. Eventually IE8 will exit support and XP will be unable to be used for various tech.
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|uh oh, its over for google now ;)
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|Dead serious.
This *alone* might make the switch-over to a Windows Live homepage worth the time and effort (the only thing keeping me on Google...nothing was offered that made up for the time involved in switching).
Can't wait.
Anyone know of a way to get on this early?
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|Probably sign up for a live account! Haha.
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|Only problem on this end is I cannot access my Google Mail or my Google Homepage gadget from "My MSN" homepage....they only allow RSS feeds and one "hotmail" gadget.
This has always been one of Microsoft's biggest failures: Giving the third-party dev community a way and a reason to rally around any of their products. If they made it possible to add actual gadgets to the page...and then let the users home-brew their gadgets, it'd be win-win.
I can live without the gmail feed, but the Gadget I created for my Google homepage is necessary for work. I can get by without it, but....
So. it looks like I may stick with Google yet a while and hope someone home-brews a decent "Office Live" gadget. ;)
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|I agree with you :)
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