Microsoft made a major announcement today – they will be offering “lightweight” versions of Office applications – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote – through the browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari will be supported. Users will be able to read and edit documents from the browser.
We had guessed earlier this year that Microsoft would choose the Silverlight platform to deliver Office online, but Microsoft will instead be copying the Google approach – the applications will be 100% HTML and Javascript. Update: The application will be offered in both Silverlight and HTML/Ajax – if it detects Silverlight on your computer, it will launch there.
This is a bold if belated move for Microsoft, which relies heavily on Office revenues and profits to support its money-burning online business.
Google, of course, has been offering online versions of Office documents since they acquired Writely in 2006. Their versions of the applications are not as feature rich as Microsoft Office, but they’re free, easy to use and allow for easy collaboration. Microsoft was forced to respond.
The pricing model hasn’t been announced yet, but Microsoft notes that consumers can currently use Office Live Workspaces for free with advertising. Businesses will likely have some form of a subscription model.
So…free Office from Microsoft, and one less desktop application. For most users this will be more than enough to make the expensive, downloaded version irrelevant. Power users who need advanced features will still buy Office, but that’s a tiny percentage of the overall market.
I love competition to threaten a monopoly into doing what it would otherwise not would.
I don’t think Microsoft will be able to charge subscription for their online Office just like how Quicken can’t charge for theirs. New business model needs to be revised to meet the new market economy.
What about…”Microsoft Office for Domains?” Never say never.
Major problem with such application have been that those apps dont work if we save in desktop. We can save google docs page on desktop has .html or .mht(single file) using browsers, but it wont work. Forget docs app, even desktop saved basic gmail.html also doesnt work.
A clever programming using full urls in ajax calls, instead of relative address would make this possible in such apps. This would be real alternative, but current Google docs kinda apps or even google gears can never compete with native desktop apps. Added programming for such html apps would be a version control that asks user to download later version as soon as available.
I can’t agree with you more. They practically have been cornered by big and small web top apps to do this.
Sounds good… but I won’t be too excited until they come up with the pricing model. I don’t think MSFT will cannibalize his flag product Office just to “embrace the browser user”
A retail upgrade license from $240 to a full-package product license of $400 vs a subscription-based price of maybe $14.99/month per user??
Definetely, I would stick with the FPP license. Nice move, Ballmer!
MSFT doesn’t really understand the Software-as-a-Service model. They just want to enable another channel (the Web) to sell more sw licenses
MS doesn’t just want to enable another channel to sell more sw licenses, they just want to enable another channel to confuse and slow the inevitable. It’s all about the FUD.
This is great move for Microsoft. If they had clung for the next five years to a offline app only, they would have had their lead diminished greatly. What I want to see here is some of the collaborative elements that GDocs has, baked right in. This might move me back to the MSOffice fold.
According to this channel 9 interview (http://channel9...ice-14-for-Web/) it _will_ use silverlight if silverlight is detected. Otherwise, it will use standard html + javascript.
It uses silverlight, not because it has to (Google/Yahoo! taught us that), but because Wall St. “anal-lists” would ask why MS needed to spend all that $$ on silverlight if they could do something as powerful as Office Online without it.
But they simply say no to Linux.
Actually, if it runs on Firefox, doesn’t that mean that you will be able to run Microsoft Office on Linux for the first time?
Ha!
NO!
Bad Bad move.
They just positioned themselves to play a game of catchup where they can never catchup.
They need to bite the bullet, and iteratively release a kick ass silverlight based office.
Actually, this is good news the other startups that are slaving away on this already in the garage.
microsoft has been pretty good at playing catch up in the past. see their entire lineup of products.
I’m with Michael on this one. Microsoft has been copying products and then stomping the competition with their monetary might since MS-DOS and Windows. They’ve tried to copy everything Emperor Steve has done. With Windows they won the battle, with Zune they’re failing miserably. You win some and you lose some. Microsoft’s overall success shows they win more than they lose though.
I find google docs to be absolutely terrible for formating a document but excellent for collaborating. Basically its a tool for drafting a doc but certainly not making it look presentable. Here’s hoping MS does a better job.
Microsoft still has an opportunity to establish some great tie-ins with its offline office products. I think past attempts at implementing online features in offline apps, like Word, was poorly executed. I would like to see some version controls, backup features, and sharing permissions straight from my Word desktop app that translate to the new online app.
Chrome becomes a strong platform for Google to develop Google Docs and other applications. May be a full enterprise applications suite at a later point in time. With Gears and further iterations of Chrome and Gears, Google can establish Chrome as a platform for running Google powered applications.
Now that’s something!
But I’m thinking, people like I who do no use even 10 percent of Office features won’t put money into buying MS office! That means, MS Office revenues will suffer!
Right?
Isn’t this going to result in a feature/product race between Google and Microsoft? If so, great!
What a decision taken by Microsoft to eliminate its competitior. Their revenues might be decreased in terms of the Office product that customer usually buy off-the-shelves, but they might be getting some form of revenues through advertisement like what Google had done with its Gmail application. Nice try Pallmer
Eliminate it’s competitor? You mean eliminate Google Docs, or eliminate Google altogether?
Given that Google gets less than 1% of its revenues from Google Docs, I don’t think this move by MS will eliminate them. And I doubt Google Docs will close up shop because MS announced an online version.
I have just read the release and I don’t think that this will be a stand alone service: my quess is that some of the office packages will allow users to create a login after using a valid licence as part of the process.
Result: no impact on revenue
no, MS has confirmed you will not need an installed version of Office to use the service.
That’s big news right there. They’re giving up significant leverage of their existing office suite and are taking a huge risk trying to compete “more fairly” with all the other apps out there.
I work in a big enterprise enviroment and have yet to see a need for an online office application. People prefer the enviroment of a full application. Using an online office app is like going from a sports car to a bicycle.
Same goes with simple HTML editing for websites for my non technical clients.
I have tons of need for online HTML WYSIWYG editor that is standard across most all online applications and does proper formatting, and is dead simple to use. That problem has been around for probably 10 years and isn’t solved yet. Looking at CMS’s the only thing that can be used is contribute just because it is a full fledged application and provides a better interface.
I completely agree. I much prefer the desktop application. The ONLY real use I would ever have for an online solution like this would be the extremely rare situations where I’m on a friend’s computer or some strange computer and I for some reason need to access a document from the internet or a USB drive.
I would never want to work exclusively, or even partially, in an online environment.
hmm, the problems seems to be solved. Take a look at picoscribe. Their video says that they have a WYSIWYG layout engine for html.
Cheers George
Mike,
I understood this to be something more like Outlook Web Access, i.e. a web enabled extension to your own existing ‘MS Office Servers’. I thought this new offering was more for people to run their own web-enabled Office solutions using their own IT, rather than the more Google-hosted offering. That’s more interesting to a lot of people as it gives the mobility/collaboration side but without giving up the privacy etc.
Now, they may well host it themselves as part of Office Live but it is a different type of play if I can buy my own server for my company vs what Google offers.
If you already have your own infrastructure, then you most likely already have the ms office suite which allows “sharing” of documents over local networks. Mobility can be solved with vpn.
Point taken that both interfaces can be tightened up to make the process more user friendly.
If it’s significantly better than Google Docs, I’ll most likely switch back. It seems to me that Google supporters minimize all the large problems and inconveniences with Google Docs, or at least with the word processor (though the spreadsheet has frustrated me too). Also, while I’m getting more used to an online environment, I completely understand why larger enterprise users don’t want to.
This underscores the importance of browser add-ons like Greasemonkey and iMacros. Without them, online apps would be to difficult to manage.
Any thoughts on a possible integration with Facebook? That would be a big time play and one hell of a service
What integration? Posting charts and dingbats on someone’s wall? “Billy just finished the ‘Write Your Own Resume’ application”
meh
Brilliant response. Consider something along the lines of what Google has done with Google Docs and Gmail (hint: not an application). I’m connected to a lot more people through Facebook than Gmail and as many commenters have already noted Google Docs is far from perfect so it’s likely MS will offer a superior product
“This is a bold if belated move for Microsoft, which.. ”
Belated move? Microsoft is always like that.
Bold? Not quite. Developing silverlight, now that’s IMO bold.. With Adobe relentlessly offering Flash/Flex/Air/Acrobat more features, and something like Javascript is all over the pla(net). They just desperate to catching up. Although, like you just said, “microsoft has been pretty good at playing catch up in the past.” Have more often been helped (saved) by so many users who use Windows. But not today.
All I can say is MS started to lose their ground with everybody else (like google, adobe, linux, or even sun) have something innovative.
Microsoft has seen the writing on the wall. The question is whether they can find the middle ground between the bloatware of yore and the light, flexible Web apps of today. I’ll also be curious to see how they approach other discrete application categories such as project/task management, diagramming software, and CRM. Will they fold these products into a future version of Live or does that put in motion a dangerous cycle of enterprise cannibalization (priced out a copy of Project Server lately?). I think where they can offer seamless integration between offline and online they’ll provide real value. Otherwise, I remain somewhat skeptical as developing apps for the Web is not exactly in their DNA.
Rob
http://www.liquidplanner.com
nice…finally “Better late than never”
http://www.livbit.com
Strangely enough I blogged about this last night. See my full explination of why this is happening at
http://www.craf...pdc-with-azure/
This was very expected and if anything, a real sign that Microsoft is turning away from the iceberg directly in front of them. If anything, I am surprised how fast Microsoft appear to be turning the ship, even tho it is a bit late. They seem to be making up for time. I did not expect this so soon myself.
James
What is this “expensive downloaded version” of Office of which you speak?
I think Office 2003 cost me $12.50 a year. I hear they have lowered the price(http://byrondennis.typepad.com/it_investment_research/2008/08/when-it-comes-to-microsoft-dont-believe-what-you-read-in-informationweek.html).
I think the new version does not include Outlook but you get that for free over the net already.
We (my team and I) are working on a Microsoft Project -like addon to Google Spreadsheets using Google GData API.
And we develop it half in Silverlight 2.0 and half in AJAX.
And we made decision to use Google Documents and Spreadsheets to better feel the pain (and there is a lot of pain)
of people using Online Office.
We are going as far as building Help part of the application as published Google Documents
and Bug / Feedback Submission form as published spreadsheet.
That is after me beeing Microsoft Office (Word and PP mostly) user of some 18 years.
This, i guess, puts me in an interesting position to compare two technologies and two office suites, though
one I did not try yet, of cause.
Here are my thoughts.
Google Office is great demonstration of how far HTML/Javascript can be taken.
It is also a demonstration of how painful it is to build high quality applications on that technology.
It is also a demonstration of what can not be built with it at all.
Take Google Analytics. The hits graph is Flash.
Google Documents is pain. I try to write tutorial and I suffer. It is a great lession to me.
I try to incorporate what I learned into gganttic (that is the name of the application).
Goole Spreadsheets is much better. I don’t use advanced stuff – formulas etc, to me it is a database with revisions.
So may be I don’t appreciate it adequately.
Google API is good. It is a pleasure to code to.
Google team is responsive, and knowledgable. Community (forums) is very supportive.
Google Office, in my opinion, is good for collaboration. It is very good for it.
I suffer through my Tutorial formatting, but when I have to let someone fix my english, the sharing, is instant.
Now to microsoft side.
Silverlight is a technological marvel.
I was follwing it since version 1.1, renamed to 2.0. I was developing with it for over a year.
It brings Web client programming into reach of C# desktop people.
Look at me as an example. I have programmed 6 years in C# – since .NET was beta.
Before that I developed drag and drop AJAX style applciation – mind it in year 2001 no one used the word.
There was no jQuery or prototype. Today JS is much better in components.
So I can claim I know, somewhat, both worlds. And C# developement wins.
gganttic uses SL for graphics and algorithms, Javascript layer for communcation with server (jQuery) and
modal dialogs (jqModal, Silvelright did not have modal dialog for SL1.1, SL2 Beta1 adn Beta2), and menus.
Debugging is easy and pleasant in Visual Studio 2008 (VS2008).
Mind that when discussing Silverlight, one has to take VS2008 into account.
Tools matter. VS2008 is very good for C#/.NET/SL developement.
Also important, there are great 3rd party tools. Good example is Resharper a C# addin.
It makes refactoring code a brease.
Comparatively, when I have to debug my JS, it is pain.
Firebugs helps a lot, but it is no comparison to what VS2008 does for SL.
There is always a chance I miss something, but I know of no competitive tool for JS.
I guess part of the problem is in JS nature as interpreted language.
I think Microsoft Web Office, or whatever they call it will have better individual applications
then Google’s in its present form. There are 4 reasons.
One, Silverlight/Visual Studio 2008 is a great enabler.
Two, they have domain knowledge. Microsoft people got years of experince of how to build those apps.
They got answers to many usability quiestions that arise. Ribbon of Office 2007, much rediculed, makes for much better Web app experience then old menus.
Who knows what they thought when they designed it.
They got enough engineering talen.
The engineering work they did, still do, on Silverlight 2.0 is nothing short of breathtaking.
I had to adapt gganttic to Alpha, Beta1, Beta2, skipped RC0, and now work on SL2.0 release.
I watched the thing progressing, controls defined and redefined. The progress is fantastic.
It is strategic to MS to fend off Google attack. They got money. They got will. Google is not as focused.
On the other hand, Google Office will benefit from mashups. People will be integrating with it.
Some even will write Microsoft Project like things in Silverlight to fill the void
There will be more then one of every kind. It will be a web of applications. In many ways it already is.
So here is my bottom line: for collaboration of small gographically distributed agents – team members, business partners
- I would vote for Google Office. For big enterprises I would bet on Microsoft.
As I say on my blog at http://dev.plutext.org/blog/ , the only thing which is surprising about this announcement – given the earlier leaks by Balmer and others – is how long you’ll have to wait before you can get your hands on this. I’d thought it possible Microsoft would deliver this in a service pack for Office 2007. That Office 14 might not arrive until 2010 means you’ll need to be very patient if you are looking to Microsoft to deliver your collaboration solution.
There were no surprises re:
* Technology – Office Web uses Silverlight
* Delivery model – you need Sharepoint or Office Live Workspace to host the service
* Pricing – it is available as a hosted subscription service or through existing volume licensing agreements
Given that corporates who currently pay for Office will still have to pay for this, there is no issue about killing the cash cow.
The biggest risk to that was opening the file formats. And patents – wielded as a sword – may be the ultimate defence there.
yes dear friends, i am readinng your comments. Thanks about them.
dear friends , we r using usually microsoft products in TR. What about the other countries?
does that mean that you can’t do anything without internet connection?
I think we are about to enter a period of consolidation for the multitude of online productivity apps that have come out of numerous startups during the last few years.
Given that it’s difficult to compete with brands like google and MS when thinking about mainstream adoption of web apps, plus the difficulty of economic conditions, is it ‘end of story’ for some smaller companies?
Couldn’t Microsoft just implement something similar to the Office 2007 demos on the Microsoft website (it uses Citrix to deliver Office 2007 to the user, and even though it says it needs ActiveX, it works with Citrix’s Java client as well)? It would appear to me the online version of office would be limited in features, but I would want a feature-complete online office so that I can use it on computers that don’t have office installed.
what about google they also buid the office suite is they have copied from Microsoft ?
Ha! Looks like Microsoft is finally shipping NetDocs! And it only took them 10 years to do it! What’s NetDocs? It’s their web-based Office replacement that was started in development before Google was even founded.
Strange George! If Microsoft was working on such kind of project then why did they delay it?
The timing is not accidental. Michael Arrington is right thanking Google for it. Google Documents and Spreadsheets is a threat to Microsoft – and they have to give it a go now even as it means cannibalizing their Office cash cow. The second reason is that internet is speedy enough, and penetrated enough. The third reason is .NET/C#/Silverlight – Microsoft can now do what they could not do earlier, and Google can not do even now.
And finally Microsoft is offering word and power point like google’s spread sheets and documents..
The claim that people will ditch the desktop version is rubbish. People want the security, functionality and reliability of desktop software. If people wanted it in the browser so desperately, they would have switched to GDocs/writely ages ago. They haven’t because they don’t. This is just an add on to Word. Most people and businesses will continue to use the regular version.
As pointed out by others, these solutions still only support “dumb” offline work. What information workers want (rather than social users) is the ability to share docs, like spreadsheets, at the data level. That means make a change to cell in a spreadsheet and then have that change show up on other user’s desktops without emailing or making them view the data in a browser window. That takes a new database techology like….
To all ye “channel partners” out there:
Microsoft wants to increase Microsoft revenue and profits. Not Partner revenue and profits. Switch to opensource. That will give you a steady support income quickly. Or go over to trading UMPCs at 10% margins. Or go buy land and do some farming. With the channel out of the way, Microsoft gets more profit, customers get more profit.
Offer opensource or close down. The choice is yours.
Finally, we have a service from MS that might actually trump Google. Google Docs looks like Notepad when compared to what MS Office Online might offer. People are gonna jump ship from for sure.
anyone tried Hibernater? it complements offline ms office which might actually trump gdocs too.