Microsoft Office 14 to play roles

Speaking at Software 2006, Simon Witts, corporate vice president of the enterprise and partner group at Microsoft, went through Microsoft's enterprise software and platform strategy and mentioned Office 14. Maybe it's been bandied about, but I hadn't heard about '14.' Office 2007, formerly Office 12, is shipping before the end of this year to the volume-license program and early next year for mainstream users. According to Witts, Office 14 will be focused on "role-based productivity."

"We'll have one for sales, R&D and HR, for example. You can start to imagine a world of Office as a business application platform," Witts said. 

Will Office 14 be available as an on demand service? How loosely coupled will it be? Where do all the Dynamics apps fit in? Will Office 16 slice vertically by industry? How much will Microsoft leave to third-parties? Many questions. Does anyone have answers?