Microsoft unveils Office Web Applications 2010, Mobile 2010

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Microsoft has officially revealed its Office Web Applications offerings ahead of the announcements at this years Worldwide Partner Conference today.

Company officials have posted several "what's new" videos onto the Microsoft Showcase site. The what's new videos range from Word through to Outlook and some highlight the Web Applications and "Microsoft Mobile 2010". Blogger Long Zheng noticed the videos on Microsoft's site today.

Office Web Applications 2010

In the what's new video for Office Web Applications 2010, Word, Powerpoint and Excel are demonstrated. Microsoft also confirms these work on PC or Mac and in Firefox as can be seen below.

Office Web Applications are part of Microsoft's "software plus services" initiative where the company plans to deliver all its technology in this way. As part of the next release of Office, Microsoft are planning Office Web applications - lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote - through a browser. Running these new applications will allow individuals to use a browser to create, edit, and share Office documents wherever they are. Microsoft wants to provide a consistent Office experience, regardless of whether users are accessing their Office documents through the PC, phone, or browser.

Microsoft Mobile 2010

In the what's new video for Mobile 2010, Microsoft demonstrates Mobile document viewers. Viewers allow company's to render Office documents server side, allowing "just about" every smart phone on the market to view the documents without needing to download them. This includes iPhones and Blackberry's.

(3 replies) #1 .Neo on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:03

Can't imagine myself seriously working with Office inside a browser. However, it's a nice project for the long-term.

#1.1 Bemani Dog on 13 Jul 2009 - 12:10

It looks to be a good way to take mobile apps with you, or use apps on clean installations before you are able to install Office.

#1.2 .Neo on 13 Jul 2009 - 17:27

It takes maybe 10 minutes to install Microsoft Office or Apple iWork on my Mac after an Erase & Install of Mac OS X. I think I'll manage.

#1.3 andrewbares on 13 Jul 2009 - 22:04

Why do people use Google Docs? Apparently some ppl do.

(2 replies) #2 Ambroos on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:03

The online versions really look almost identical to the offline version, very nicely done!

#2.1 GP007 on 13 Jul 2009 - 11:16

Yup, and that mobile shot looks nice as well. Though I wonder if that's real or more of a concept at this point?

#2.2 Bemani Dog on 13 Jul 2009 - 12:09

GP007 said,

Financial Times says it's real.

(2 replies) #3 RaidenX on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:04

The woman in the video is speaking waaaaay to slow

#3.1 master2k27 on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:08

Yea but it looks good

#3.2 Ambroos on 13 Jul 2009 - 12:11

RaidenX said,

Looks like she got high on Office!

(4 replies) #4 linuxboynz on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:08

:o MS using Firefox in their vids!! OMG!

#4.1 master2k27 on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:14

it is just to show it works

#4.2 GraphiteCube on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:15

linuxboynz said,

Web applications are useless if they works on specific browser(s) only.

#4.3 +dead.cell on 13 Jul 2009 - 15:28

I'm really glad to see Microsoft not being tight-asses about it too. Really nice to see it working in Firefox.

(and yes, I apologize for bringing this up, but just thought it'd be a bit funny if it didn't work in Opera)

#4.4 +shinji257 on 13 Jul 2009 - 16:58

dead.cell said,

Considering that Firefox has about 30% of the market I think it would be in Microsoft's best interest to make sure that it worked in both IE and Firefox. I mean they develop Office for Mac too.

#5 Relativity_17 on 13 Jul 2009 - 10:29

Haha - "Half our competitor's price, DOUBLE the caffeine!"

(1 reply) #6 Tarrant64 on 13 Jul 2009 - 11:46

Looks like all the links are dead/removed.

EDIT:
Nevermind: Finished reading the blog...

Google Cache it -> http://74.125.153.132/search?hl=en&client=...%2F&btnG=Search

There are no longer videos however.

#6.1 Tarrant64 on 13 Jul 2009 - 16:56

Tarrant64 said,

Couldn't edit my own post.

Looks like it's been restored.

(3 replies) #7 geoken on 13 Jul 2009 - 13:02

Will these use Silverlight?

#7.1 andrewbares on 13 Jul 2009 - 22:05

I hope so!

#7.2 MulletRobZ on 13 Jul 2009 - 22:37

I hope not! Silverlight 2.x and 3.x doesn't work on PPC-based Macs, and no Silverlight app/plugin exists for the iPhone nor the Blackberry.

Mind you, that MS Mobile could make a pretty cool iPhone App, especially if it were to allow access to Office Live Workspace documents.

#7.3 geoken on 14 Jul 2009 - 01:08

andrewbares said,

So you hope it can be used from your home computers which could easily have the actual app installed on them but not from your phone, a remote computer which doesn't allow software installations and any other place where you'd actually want to use this?

(2 replies) #8 Baked on 13 Jul 2009 - 13:18

Can't see the point...

Google Docs for online (it does everything I need plus is tied in with my gmail)
and Office for offline (In fact in the last year I've dropped use of outlook and nearly all office apps, just dont need them much anymore)

#8.1 DSLJay on 13 Jul 2009 - 13:44

From my understanding, this will be tied in with the Office 2010 where you can save your documents on the internet and via the office live web site, you can send an invite to allow a non ms office person to open and edit the documents via the invite.

This does look very promising.

#8.2 +Frazell Thomas on 13 Jul 2009 - 16:23

The point is very basic. Microsoft is offering a better online product for their customers...

If you find Google to be better for your needs than that is fine. Not everyone does. As a result, they will have an online offering for those who prefer to use Microsoft Office products.

I'll keep using my offline copy of Office though

not really into this "cloud" computing mess due to privacy concerns.

#9 prabir on 13 Jul 2009 - 16:51

Anyone got idea about the storage capacity? or is it gonna use sky drive .
hope they increase the capacity if so.

#10 WAR-DOG on 13 Jul 2009 - 17:56

I think that it's main purpose is for enterprise solutions... You install office on a server, and everybody in the domain has access to office. Atleast that's what I think Microsoft's vision was... hence it is a big task keeping all applications up to date in an enterprise envoirement, since office is now online, you only update the server...

(1 reply) #11 boogerjones on 13 Jul 2009 - 19:22

It wasn't clear to me if the Office Web Apps could be hosted locally on a server, and everything officially released so far has been pretty vague on the issue. Anybody have the answer?

#11.1 tuxplorer on 14 Jul 2009 - 05:16

They can be hosted on SharePoint. A hostable version is released as part of the current Technical Beta. IMO, OWA and SharePoint 14 combo is going to knock the pants off Google Apps for Your Domain.

#12 M_Lyons10 on 13 Jul 2009 - 20:53

This all looks very interesting. I would probably stick with an installed application myself, but I am rather intrigued by the mobile announcements... That sounds very cool.

#13 +Nightwind Hawk on 14 Jul 2009 - 00:27

The web applications look really good.. there's so many times where I go somewhere to open or print a document and they have Office 2000... so if you have a document that doesn't view properly, this should be good!

#14 oreo1986 on 14 Jul 2009 - 00:48

definitely great for academic life !!

#15 kiwi89 on 14 Jul 2009 - 00:54

wow. I think that looks very cool. Google docs are great and hopefully MS will make office much like this but more powerful.

#16 +Techno_Funky on 14 Jul 2009 - 05:08

Is'nt that way too white ....

#17 Quikboy on 14 Jul 2009 - 05:13

This must be better than Google Docs. Hopefully there's good Windows Live integration (like storing in SkyDrive, integration with Hotmail, etc.).

#18 specialtech on 14 Jul 2009 - 05:44

Whoo hoo I just got an invite for the technical preview. Wonder if it will support any of the online apps. Interestingly the take up by some local companies i know that are small enough to use and warrant google apps is amazing.

The only downside is that there is no check in and check out of files. So its possible to download 2 files and upload them at the same time causing confusion about revisions although not a problem if you are working on line but especially with the case as google spreadsheet its just no where near quick enough or powerfull enough for anything more than basics. Try using loads of hlookups and vlookups

#19 DawnUnder2002 on 14 Jul 2009 - 06:37

Got my Technical preview invite in my inbox as well, time to beta test!

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