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Posts Tagged ‘Office Web’

2 Million Downloads and Counting: Why Such Loyalty for Microsoft Office?

In the past seven weeks, more than 2 million people have downloaded the beta for Microsoft Office 2010. That’s a whopping 40,000 downloads per day. It’s a record breaking pace, surpassing the beta release for Microsoft Office 2007.

It begs the question: In the face of so many free options, why are people so loyal to Microsoft Office?

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There are a few possible reasons:

Microsoft has a locked in user base. It is an enterprise standard. As the story goes, no one has ever been fired for buying Microsoft.

As one person replied to the question on Aardvark: “A lot of the free options simply aren’t suitable for corporate use. You are basically out of luck if your free-no-guarantees Google Docs spreadsheet disappears. The free products do not have the complex formulas, interconnecting tables and client data that comes with Microsoft Office.”

Another person stated on Aardvark: “That is because it is the most accepted office package. Try doing business without the capability. I had to purchase it just to be able to work at home instead of extended office hours. Now I am loading Open Office on all computers I repair and send out. I also think Google is going to do a large bite into Microsoft business.”

How long will the loyalty last?

This is where we wonder about how the events over the past few days may affect the future of Microsoft Office. Google is coming on strong with it’s Nexus One. Couple that with its big push into the enterprise and you have to wonder what Microsoft is going to do to counter Google’s undeniable momentum.

We are still waiting Windows Mobile 7. LG did let it slip at CES yesterday that Windows Mobile 7 will be available later this year. The Microsoft Office Web Apps are in beta with limited usability. The full-featured version will be available in the Spring. It will require a Sharepoint server. The free edition will only allow you to view documents.

Enterprise 2.0 applications are a whole other issue. Its user interfaces are web-oriented and mobile-friendly. This new breed of applications will be increasingly enticing to Office customers.

Two million downloads is impressive but loyalty is a fickle thing. The real test is still to come.

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Office Web Apps – Let the Confusion Begin

What exactly from Office Web Apps and Office Mobile 2010 can you use on your mobile right now and what will be available when the product ships next spring?

Mary Jo Foley does the best job of outlining what is happening here. Let’s take a sky high look and see if we can make sense of things so you know what to do if you really have an interest in giving Office a try on the mobile.

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First of all, Office Web Apps is now in beta and available for download. It is free.

Here is the first point of confusion and in our book goes to the heart of the issue.

The Office Web Apps you download today is NOT the Office Web Apps that will ship next spring. What you download today is actually the business version, which is the paid version of the product. We expect that if you download the application today then you will have to download a new one when the REAL Office Web Apps launches next spring.

Let’s move on to the next issue. What is exactly available with Office Web Apps?

According to Foley, it works with the following phones and apps:

* IE on Windows Mobile 5/6/6.1/6.5
* Safari4 on iPhone 3G/S
* BlackBerry 4.x and newer versions
* Nokia S60
* NetFront 3.4, 3.5 and newer versions
* Opera Mobile 8.65 and newer versions
* Openwave 6.2, 7.0 and newer versions

Hold on one more time. There is more we need to explain. According to Foley, you can only view documents in Office Web Apps. You can not write to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote documents.That’s true now and will remain true when the product launches next spring.

On the other hand, Foley says….”Office Mobile 2010 enables editing and viewing of Word, Excel,
PowerPoint, OneNote and SharePoint documents on phones running the
Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system.”

But will there ever be the ability to actually interact with documents using the free version of Office Web Apps? Yes, but Microsoft is still trying to figure out how that will all work. In the meantime, to run Office Mobile 2010, users will need Sharepoint on the back end. Why? Apparently, the back end running out of Sharepoint determines what document to post to your mobile. 

Got it?

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