November 20th, 2009

Office Starter 2010 private beta, with 'Office to GO,' goes to testers

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:21 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, PDC 2009, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Virtualization

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft released a bunch of public betas of various Office 2010 products this week. But it also released another one under non-disclosure to a select group of testers: Office Starter 2010.

Microsoft made the code for Office Starter 2010 available to select testers via its Connect Web site late this week. Office Starter 2010, as Microsoft officials have disclosed previously, Office Starter 2010 is the replacement for Microsoft Works. It will be free and ad-supported, includes Word and Excel only and allows only basic document viewing and editing.

There’s one new feature in Office Starter 2010 that I had not heard about previously. It’s called “Office to GO,” according to testers with whom I spoke, who asked not to be named. Office to GO is installed using the Click-to-Run setup that is part of Office 2010. (Click to Run is one of the new ways Microsoft is planning to distribute the Office 2010 bits. It streams the bits onto a user’s PC using virtualization technology so that users can be up and running with Office more quickly than if they had to wait for the entire product to download.)

The Office to GO application allows users to download Word Starter, Excel Starter and any related documents to a USB drive that users can then run onany  Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Windows 7 PC, according to the aforementioned tester.

Office Starter 2010 also includes a permanent sidebar that includes links to a Gettting Started guide, help and support, templates and clip art, and an “upgrade to a paid version now” (with PowerPoint and/or Outlook) setting. Here’s what that sidebar looks like (click on the image to enlarge):

I’ve asked Microsoft for more details about Office to GO and will add anything I get back to this post.

Update (November 23): Here’s the statement I received from a Microsoft spokesperson regarding my questions on Office to GO:

“Office Starter To-Go is a product where Office Starter users can create a USB device that temporarily enables them to use Word Starter and Excel Starter on another PC on as long as the USB device is plugged in.  The technology used by Office Starter To-Go, is similar to how “Click-to-Run” works in that the USB device is being used as the server for a version of Starter on the device.  When the device is removed from a PC, Office Starter To-Go is also removed. Starter To-Go is only part of Office Starter edition that is pre-installed on new PC’s.  It cannot be installed on a separate PC, but it gives our customers the ability to take their Office with them and use it on any PC to open and work with their Word and Excel documents.”

Meanwhile, in other Office 2010 news from this week, I have a bit of additional information about the Office Web Apps public beta that Microsoft released to testers this week.

As Microsoft officials have said before, Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — will be available in three versions. One will be free and ad-supported and aimed at consumers. The consumer version, which is tied to Microsoft’s SkyDrive, is what Microsoft released as a Community Technology Preview (CTP) test build to selected testers this past summer. Microsoft officials told me this week that the final version of the free Office Web Apps product will be released in conjunction with Windows Live Wave 4 (which sounds as if it is a “spring 2010″ kind of thing).

There also are going to be two business-focused versions of Office Web Apps that are going to be available as paid subscription offerings: One that will be available to enterprise customers to run on-premises and one that will be hosted by Microsoft. The beta that went out this week is the on-premises business version of the Office Web Apps release. To be clear: It’s not the updated beta version of the consumer test build that Microsoft released earlier this fall. (It sounds like the consumer version of Office Web Apps may not get a new public build refresh before it is released in final form this spring.)

The business versions require SharePoint Server on the back end. Microsoft’s Office Web Apps team did a blog post earlier this week explaining more about the Office Web Apps-SharePoint tie-in. That post includes this diagram:

I’m interested in hearing more from anyone who’s test-driving the new Office Web Apps beta and/or Office Starter 2010. How are the products shaping up? What’s working or not for you?

November 13th, 2009

Office 2010 Beta 2 bits leak to the Web

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:44 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, PDC 2009, SharePoint Server

Tags: Web, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Beta, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft has been having a tough time keeping its Office 2010 bits from leaking.

On November 13, the Professional Plus version of the next version of Microsoft’s productivity suite leaked again. The version that is making its way over the torrents is marked as Beta 2, according to the Neowin.net site, and is build number 14.0.4514.1009.

Microsoft officials have said they plan to release public beta builds of Office 2010 client, Office Web Apps and SharePoint Server 2010 in November. Many company watchers are expecting Microsoft to make those bits available next week, in conjunction with the company’s Professional Developers Conference. (Microsoft also could share details about its Office Mobile 2010 at the PDC next week, as well, I hear.)

(I’ve asked Microsoft whether the leaked build is the actual Beta 2 build the company is planning to distribute this month. No word back so far.) A spokesperson said thes newly leaked bits are not the Beta 2 ones, and added “Microsoft has not released the official beta code and recommends that people do not download code from unauthorized sources.”)

According to Neowin, the differences between the leaked Beta 2 build and the current Community Technology Preview (CTP) build of Office 2010 that Microsoft made available to select testers this summer aren’t huge. The interface has been “refined” and the program icons updated, Neowin notes.

Testers with whom I’ve spoken are most interested in seeing the new features and changes that Microsoft plans to make available as part of the Office Web Apps with Beta 2. (The Office Web Apps Beta 2 bits are not part of what leaked this week.) The first test build of Office Web Apps was rough and didn’t include OneNote Web App at all. Microsoft officials have said they’ll have more to say about how and when Office Web Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote — will be able to be accessed via mobile phones around the time the company releases the public beta.

In other Office 2010 news from earlier this week, Microsoft has begun signing up testers for the free Office Starter 2010 release.

Update: Blogger Long Zheng has information on some of the changes Microsoft is making to the Office.com online portal, which is now in beta, that Microsoft also is likely to be showing off at the PDC next week.

November 12th, 2009

Microsoft lines up testers for free Office Starter 2010 product

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:31 am

Categories: Apple, Corporate strategy, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, Open source, SharePoint Server

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Office Starter 2010, Potential Tester, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is soliciting existing Office Live Workspace users to be part of a pool of testers for its forthcoming, free (but ad-supported) Office Starter 2010 product.

The ithinkdiff.com enthusiast site has posted a copy of the Office Starter 2010 invitation that Microsoft has sent out. Potential testers are asked to commplete a survey, which includes questions about the personal productivity applications and services they currently use. On the list are Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Apple’s iWork, Microsoft Works, Open Office and Microsoft Office.

In spite of its name, Office Starter 2010 really has little resemblance to Windows 7 Starter Edition. Office Starter 2010 is a new version of Microsoft’s Office suite that is expected to launch in May/June 2010. Office Starter will bundle together stripped-down versions of Word and Excel only, Microsoft officials said in October. (Stripped-down here means basic document viewing and editing only.) Starter will be ad-supported and free. Microsoft is positioning Office Starter as a replacement for the Microsoft Works trial that is often preloaded on new PCs.

Microsoft officials also said recently that Microsoft is planning to phase out Office Live Workspace, the company’s existing add-on to Office that allows users to share and collaborate on documents over the Web. Office Web Apps, another of Microsoft’s new Office SKUs being introduced in 2010, is the natural successor to Office Live Workspace.

Microsoft officials have said the company is planning to field a public beta of Office 2010 in November. Many are expecting that beta to be opened up next week, in conjunction with Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC). Microsoft is  on tap to make available public betas of Office 2010, Office Web Apps, SharePoint Server 2010. Microsoft also may show off the Office Mobile 2010 product, a version of Office for mobile phones, next week as well.

June 30th, 2009

Microsoft seeks a name for its new Office Web Apps suite

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:23 am

Categories: Code names, Corporate strategy, Google, Office, Office 2007, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, SharePoint Server, Web 2.0, Worldwide Partner Conference (WWPC)

Tags: Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Cloud Computing, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is surveying potential customers as to what it should name its forthcoming Office Web Applications suite.

As LiveSide.Net is reporting, among the handful of Office Web Apps brand names under consideration are Microsoft Ensemble, Microsoft Optro, Microsoft ArcLight, Microsoft Offsite and Microsoft Equipt. (Yes, they are in the midst of killing off the current Equipt subscription service. But why let an already trademarked name go to waste?)

Microsoft also is sharing a bit more positioning information about the forthcoming suite of Web-hosted Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote apps that it is expected to release to a wider group of testers in mid-July, as part of the Office 2010 Community Technology Preview.

According to a Web survey which seems to be aimed more at IT pros and developers than consumers, Microsoft is clearly positioning Office Web Apps as complements to client-based Office, not as a replacement to it. The survey asks which of the above-mentioned names does the best job of describing an offering that would compete with Google Apps, Google’s hosted app suite aimed at business users.

Microsoft is expected to make Office Web Apps a free, ad-supported suite for individuals, but a paid, subscription-based service for enterprise customers.

The survey also highlights some of the forthcoming integration between Microsoft Office and Office Web Apps that Microsoft is incorporating into the Web-based product. The Office Web Apps release will provide users with synchronization of e-mail, calendar and contact items between Web browsers (not just Internet Explorer, but also Safari and Firefox), desktop applications (via Outlook) and mobile devies (Windows Mobile phones, Blackberries and iPhones).

Office Web Apps also will allow users to get their voicemails delivered to their e-mail inboxes, allowing them to listen or read a transcription of their messages; store and share documents over the Web; and communicate via “business-grade” instant messaging tools that are connected to Outlook address books, the survey says.

I think a number of testers — and ultimately, users — are going to be a bit let down by Office Web Apps. Microsoft officials have been touting them as Web-based versions of existing Office apps. But from what I’m hearing from my sources, these Web apps are definitely more like service complements to Office than alternatives to it. It sounds like SharePoint is the unheralded middleman in the Office Web Apps scenario, and processes like saving and printing documents may not be possible without going through SharePoint first.

Microsoft officials aren’t discussing particulars regarding Office Web Apps, although they are expected to share more details (and code) at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans in mid-July.

Which of the potential new names for Office Web Apps do you think Microsoft should choose? What kinds of capabilities do you think the Office Web Apps suite must have to be a real competitor to Google Apps?

April 2nd, 2009

There's more than one way Microsoft could bring Office to the iPhone

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:54 am

Categories: Advertising, Apple, Corporate strategy, Google, Mobile services ("Pink"/"Rouge"), Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, Office for Mac, PDC 2008, SharePoint Server, Utility/cloud computing, Web 2.0, Windows Live, Windows Mobile

Tags: Apple iPhone, Mobile, Web Application, Microsoft Corp., Office Web Apps, Office Live Service, Office Team, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software

Choice is good. But too many choices with too much overlapping functionality isn’t a plus.

Microsoft execs haven’t done the best job articulating the difference in the constantly expanding family of Office versions. The result: Company watchers, partners and customers are having trouble keeping it all straight — as the current obsession over a Microsoft exec’s comment that the company plans to make Office available on the iPhone — makes all too clear.

Microsoft actually noted back in October 2008 that it planned to support its forthcoming Webified versions of its Office 14 apps, known as “Office Web Applications,” running not just in Internet Explorer, but also in Safari for the Mac and Firefox (on a variety of platforms). Company officials reiterated that cross-browser commitment in February in an interview with News.com.

So was Stephen Elop, the president of Microsoft’s Business Division — whose comments this week at Web 2.0 on Office’s planned support for the iPhone set off a chain reaction in the blogging echo chamber –  simply revisiting Microsoft’s Office Web Apps strategy yet again? Or was Elop promising that Microsoft might port its Office Mobile suite to non-Windows Mobile phones (which would be big news, if true)? Or could Elop be hinting that Microsoft might Webify its Office for Mac suite, like it’s doing with Office 14? Hey, truth can be stranger than fiction….

It’s hard to be sure. In fact, it’s getting harder and harder to figure out exactly which of Microsoft’s Office software, services and software-plus-services offerings are best suited for what.

Here’s my attempted breakdown of what Microsoft has said will be coming next on the Office front:

Client: Office 14 is the next release of Office for Windows client machines. It is in alpha test now and expected to hit beta this summer. Final release is expected in the first half of 2010. We don’t know yet how many Office 14 SKUs Microsoft will release or what pricing will be. There’s also a new version of Office for Mac in the works, too, which will be a follow-on to the Office 2008 release.

Server: SharePoint 14 is the next release of Microsoft’s back-end suite of Office servers. It is in alpha test now and expected to hit beta this summer, simultaneously with Office 14 client. The new version is widely expected to add offline support to SharePoint. Final release expected in first half of 2010.

Mobile: Microsoft continues to evolve its Office Mobile suite for mobile phones. The 6.1 release of Office Mobile, which is the most recent one out there, runs on Windows Mobile phones only. Microsoft’s mobile strategy du jour seems to be to separate software and services from the base phone platform and sell these offerings (like My Phone, Zune services, Windows Live for Mobile, and maybe even Office Mobile) for a variety of phone platforms. Microsoft hasn’t committed to a date, a feature set or any other details about the next Office for Mobile release (as far as I know).

Read the rest of this entry »

February 11th, 2009

Former Softies aim to make Office work like Google Docs

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:29 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace

Tags: Google Inc., Google Docs, Microsoft Corp., DocVerse, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Two former Microsoft employees have started a company aimed at making Microsoft Office more like Google Docs — at least on the online-collaboration front.

DocVerse — a stealth startup formed by Shan Sinha, a former Microsoft SharePoint and SQL Server strategist, and Alex DeNeui, also formerly involved with SQL strategy at Microsoft — has begun offering beta invitations to a few hundred interested testers.

(DocuVerse is allowing me to distribute these invitations to the first 100 interested in signing up.  Go to http://www.docverse.com?ic=MJF to request a beta invite.)

DocVerse is a 1MB plug-in for Office 2007 that is designed to supplement the software product with new online editing/viewing/sharing capabilities.

I have to admit, when Sinha told me about what he was doing, I was skeptical. After all, Microsoft already is providing the same kind of online-collaboration capabilities to users via its free Office Live Workspace service – an offering that Microsoft officials haven’t mentioned publicly in ages. Plus, the Redmondians have said it they are readying Webified versions of certain Office applications as part of Office 14. So why would anyone need a third-party solution — even a (currently) free one like DocVerse?

“We spend a lot of time thinking about those questions,” Sinha told me via e-mail. “Office doesn’t do a good job of enabling collaboration and our aim is to complement it by tring to fix that fact. Office Live Workspace (OLW) doesn’t provide a feature set that comes close to what we offer, making it a poor user experience (and in our estimation the cause for its lack of uptake).”

Sinha said OLW primarily gives users the ability to share a file over the Web and allow someone else to download it. DocVerse allows users to edit a file at the same time without requiring check-in/check-out (and enables users to share and edit documents even if all parties don’t have the DocVerse plug-in installed).

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January 22nd, 2009

Microsoft to merge Windows Live and Office Live

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:41 pm

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, Windows 7, Windows Live

Tags: Microsoft Office Live, Microsoft Windows Live, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Collaboration, Microsoft Windows, Office Suites, Software, Operating Systems, Mary Jo Foley

One of the bits of news buried amid the Microsoft earnings and layoffs news is an organizational change involving Windows Live and Office Live.

Microsoft is merging its Windows Live and Office live properties as part of its next “Wave 4″ release, according to sources claiming familiarity with Microsoft’s plans.

The combination of the Windows Live and Office Live teams/offerings is slated to be timed to happen around the time Office 14 ships (which I’ve been hearing is either end of this year or early next). Last I heard, Wave 4 of Windows Live was expected to hit around the time Windows 7 shipped, which is seeming like Q3 of this year.

Word is that Rajesh Jha, the Corporate VP who currently heads up Office Live (and, more recently, Exchange Server) development could be moved into the Windows Live organization as part of the move.

Office Live is a group of consumer- and small-business-focused services that are designed as adjuncts to Office. Products that currently fit under the “Office Live” label include Office Live Workspace, Office Live Small Business and Office Live Groove. Windows Live is a set of consumer-focused software and services that provide mail, instant messaging, blogging and various social-networking functionality.

I asked Microsoft to verify this Windows Live-Office Live merger information. So far, no word back.

Update: Here’s the official rsponse from a Microsoft spokesperson confirming the move:

“To simplify and improve the customer experience around its Live services, Microsoft made the decision to converge Windows Live and Office Live into an integrated set of services at one single destination. Additionally, Rajesh will not be leaving the Microsoft Business Division.  There are no changes to the org structure. Rajesh’s title remains corporate VP, Microsoft Office Live and Exchange.”

January 13th, 2009

Select testers get Office 14 alpha release

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 1:03 pm

Categories: Corporate strategy, Exchange Server, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, SharePoint Server

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Tester, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft is set to begin has begun providing selected testers with access to alpha versions of its Office 14 server wares.

(Yes, I know I said just yesterday that no testers seemed to have O14 code yet. Well, surprise, surprise, some external testers say they’ve now got access to documentation outlining what’s coming in the imminent alpha build .)

Update: Here’s Microsoft’s statement, delivered via a spokesperson on January 13:

“Today Microsoft provided a select group of customers early access to an Alpha version of Office server technologies. However, Microsoft is not disclosing information about the timing for a Beta version at this time.”

Testers are going to being provided with early versions of the next release of SharePoint Server 14 — along with the promised Office Web apps (Webified versions of some of Microsoft’s key Office apps) which are tied to SharePoint 14. They are also getting SharePoint Services 14; Search Server 14; and Project Server 14. Microsoft also is providing the alpha testers with an early version of its identity server, codenamed “Geneva,” which the company is telling testers must be installed as a prerequisite for Office 14.

Testers also said they are on tap to receive a brand new alpha SKU, designated as “Office for Sales 14.” (Stay tuned for my next post, which will be all about Office for Sales.)

Microsoft isn’t planning to accept bug reports on the alpha versions of the Office 14 servers. Instead, company officials are telling testers to deploy the Office 14 wares on non-production Windows Server 2008 machines just to get an idea of what Microsoft is planning with its next slew of Office releases.

Microsoft also told the alpha testers to expect a “first beta”of Office 14 later this year.

Yesterday, when I was chatting with Rajesh Jha, Corporate Vice President of Office Live and Exchange, I asked him for a timetable for Office 14. He said to expect Microsoft to update customers “later this quarter” about its rollout and release plans for Office 14.

Testers to whom I’ve been speaking said their Microsoft reps have been telling them Office 14 could still ship by the end of this calendar year, but also might slip into early 2010.

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November 17th, 2008

Microsoft vs. Google Web-based office battle heats up again

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:55 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Google, Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace

Tags: Google Inc., Web, Microsoft Corp., Channel Management, Marketing, Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software

After a few months of relative quiet, the war of words and customer wins is on again, with Microsoft and Google battling over which company will be more successful in providing office applications over the Web.

On November 17, Microsoft is launching one component of its Software + Service strategy this week: the final versions of its Microsoft-hosted versions of Exchange and SharePoint. Microsoft is launching two of its growing family of Microsoft Online services at an event in San Francisco, according to company officials.

Last week, Google touted a couple of corporate users who had switched from Microsoft software to Google Apps. At the same time, independent researchers (a few of whom formerly worked at Microsoft) released a study — not paid for by Microsoft — showing that Google’s Web-hosted productivity oferings weren’t gaining traction with corporate customers. The study, from a firm called ClickStream, found that OpenOffice was five times more popular than Google Docs.

Google officials have said they have “millions” of users of Google Docs and Google Apps. But as a BusinessWeek story recently noted, Google still doesn’t seem to have many corporate, paying users for its hosted productivity apps.

Microsoft has been floundering, in terms of how and when to provide its customers with the option of running its Office client and server family of products in the cloud.

Until recently, Microsoft was focused on adding online collaboration functionality to Office via its Office Live Workspace technology, which is currently in beta. But at the end of October, Microsoft officials announced the company also was planning to release a Web-based version of some of its Office 14 applications that will be able to work inside of a variety of browsers, including Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox.

The first private test release of Office Web Applications, as they are being called, is due out before the end of 2008. (Microsoft hasn’t provided a recent update on when Office 14 will ship; until recently it was looking like 2009, but some are now saying early 2010 is more likely.)

it’s hard to know the extent to which Microsoft’s Office Web apps will provide all of the same features and functionality as in Microsoft Office 14, since few, if any, users have had a chance to try out the code. I had been hearing talk that documents created in Office Web Apps would not be able to be saved directly to a local PC. When I asked Microsoft officials, they said Office Web Apps documents would need to be saved first to SharePoint Workspace before being downloaded to a local machine. Once a test version is out, more “quirks” like this will no doubt be discovered.

Corporate users: Are you interested in test-driving web-based productivity solutions from Microsoft and/or Google? What are your must-haves before you deploy these kinds of services?

October 28th, 2008

Microsoft to 'webify' Office (sort of)

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:09 am

Categories: Office, Office 2010/Office 14, Office Live, Office Live Workspace, PDC 2008

Tags: Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Mary Jo Foley, Web Application, Office Web Application

Microsoft is finally doing what many have been clamoring for — making Web-based versions of its Office apps available — but in a different way than expected.

As part of the Office 14 release wave, Microsoft is going to provide “Office Web applications,” which it is describing as “lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. These versions will allow users to access their documents via a Web browser on the PC, phone or other devices.

Microsoft is slated to make the announcement about its Office Web applications plans at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles on October 28 during the morning keynote.

Office Web applications are not meant to be a replacement for the client version of Office.
Microsoft still will deliver a traditional Office 14 client release for PCs. Office Web applications are more of an adjunct to Office 14 — more along the lines of Office Live Workspace.

While Office Live Workspace, which is still in beta, allows users to collaborate and annotate Office documents, it’s not really meant for heavy editing of documents. Beyond that, I’m vague on how Office Live Workspace and Office Web applications interact and/or compete. I also am somewhat fuzzy on exactly how these Office Web Applications work under the covers.

Microsoft is saying it will deliver Office Web applications “through Office Live.” There will be both ad-funded and paid-subscription versions of these Web apps. For business users, Office Web applications will be sold as a hosted subscription service and through volume-licensing agreements. For consumers, Office Web Applications will be ad-funded and free.

There will be a private tech preview of Office Web applications starting later this year. Those interested in participating will be able to sign up for the preview  from the Office Live Workspace site.

Microsoft officials still won’t talk about when Office 14 is due to ship. Until recently, many expected it to be released in the latter half of 2009. But I’ve been hearing recent scuttlebutt that 2010 might be a more realistic target.