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Microsoft Office Web Apps: No test build until August

By Mary Jo Foley | July 13, 2009, 5:16am PDT

Summary

Many industry watchers were expecting July 13 to be Microsoft’s coming-out party for Office Web Applications, the company’s Web-centric version of its core Office apps (Word, Excel, poerPoint and OneNote) — and head-to-head competitor with Google Docs. But that’s not what’s happening today.

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

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Mary-Jo Foley

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 20 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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Many industry watchers were expecting July 13 to be Microsoft’s coming-out party for Office Web Applications, the company’s Web-centric version of its core Office apps (Word, Excel, poerPoint and OneNote) — and head-to-head competitor with Google Docs.

But there won’t be an Office Web Apps tech preview test build coming today. Or even later this week. Invited testers (and not the general public) have to wait until some time in August for the Microsoft-sanctioned Office Web Apps test build.

(An unsanctioned test build of Office 2010, which included the Web Apps, leaked a couple of months ago. Microsoft has not responded to my query as to whether the Office Web Apps build will be the same as the one that leaked in May or a more recent build.)

Microsoft officials first mentioned publicly Office Web Applications in October 2008 at the company’s Professional Developers Conference. Microsoft offered very few details about what kinds of functionality the Web Apps will deliver and not deliver. (Example: I’ve heard printing directly from and saving to those Apps won’t be possible without passing through SharePoint Server.)

At its Worldwide Partner Conference, which kicks off on July 13, the company is providing some additional details about its distribution plans for Office Web Apps.

As company officials said last year, Microsoft will offer both paid and free versions of Office Web Apps when they ship in the first half of 2010. Consumers will be able to get them for free by downloading them via from the combined Windows Live/Office Live service. Software Assurance customers will have the added option of running the Office Web Apps on premise, accessing their on-premise SharePoint Servers. And Office Web Apps also will be accessible as a set of Microsoft-hosted services (under the Microsoft Online brand).

Using Microsoft math, Microsoft execs are calculating — and touting — that Office Web Apps, once they ship in the first half of 2010, will “be available to up to half a billion customers.” They’ll be available for free to 400 million Windows Live consumers; available via Software Assurance to 90 million Office annuity customers; and to the remaining 510 million existing Office customers via Microsoft Online services.

Microsoft also is running a number of potential final names for Office Web Applications past its customers. in the running: Office Ensemble, Office Equipt, Office Optro, Office Offline and Office ArcLight.

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Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors. I have not accepted any consulting funds from Microsoft, any of its partners or its competitors for any studies/projects.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 20 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

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Talkback Most Recent of 9 Talkback(s)

  • If this was GPL open source would you get your questions answered MJ?
    Answer: Most Definitely.

    ZDNet Gravatar
    Dietrich T. Schmitz
    (Edited: 07/16/2009 07:04 AM)
  • What question...
    are you referring to in this article? I don't see that MJ has asked any questions of MS in this article.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    crazydanr@...
    07/13/2009 09:24 AM
  • MS' contradictory strategies
    I don?t quite understand MS. On the one hand MS has a problem maintaining the relevance of Windows, and on the other hand, MS continually invests in the browser ? which is the number one challenger to Windows. Why doesn?t MS directly compete against the browser by providing a framework for developers to host Windows desktop applications in Windows Terminal Services - having as great a reach as the Internet? This approach has so many advantages than its current ?shooting itself in the foot? approach of developing and promoting browser solutions ? to the detriment of its Windows business. Doesn?t MS realize that every time it promotes browser based technologies and solutions, it does harm to Windows and MS? overall image and brand? I think MS should have a distinct (non-browser) Internet strategy which directly challenges the browser, and it should do this through the use of Windows desktop applications, Terminal Services, and its open Office document formats. E.g. simply host Office 2010 on Terminal Services, and if need be, disable certain functions to make downloading the Office suite the preferred way of using the suite. Develop, or encourage the development by third parties, of advanced blog desktop applications which are derivatives of Word, which allow users to post Office documents to the blog applications. Afterwards, allow these applications to be hosted on a special version of Terminal Services behind a company?s firewall, or on the Internet. Users would then have the option of accessing the application virtually or locally after it has been downloaded to their machines. MS could distribute a special client application to support its strategy ? or if need be, browser plug-ins.

    I think two hypothetical guys should be able to have the following conversation. ?Look, I can access Google apps from any computer I want on the Internet!?
    ?So what, I can do the same for Office 2010 applications, giving me access to more features and a significantly better user experience! Also there is a new blog that I or anyone can access, where I can post and view entries in advanced, open Word document formats, allowing me to do things I could never imagine possible in regular HTML blogs!?

    In my opinion, MS really needs to pursue strategies that sharply distinguish itself from competitors pursuing regular browser based strategies, for the sake of Windows and its overall brand.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    P. Douglas
    07/13/2009 12:48 PM
  • MSFT - always had three legs to the strategy...
    These three legs are:

    1) Developer tools (the original business!) to allow developers to create high-value offerings for lower-volume markets and thus secure the value of the Microsoft ecosystem.
    2) A platform on which the developers can use the tools to create apps. Each platform establishes a broad uniform market for developers to sell their wares.
    3) Horizontal apps to make the platform worthwhile, provide design examples for developers, and provide a higher-level platform for end-users to create solutions.

    If you understand this, you understand why Microsoft invests in more portable technologies (maybe not IE, but Office Apps on the web and Silverlight) even though those technologies might seem competitive to "pure Windows". It's all about establishing productive platforms, tools, and anchoring apps.

    Windows is "a" platform. As the market continues to grow from millions to billions of devices, it also ramifies (since niches can become significant markets in their own right). Microsoft wants to apply the same tools+platform+apps strategy in adjacent emerging ecosystems where Windows isn't the answer.

    Whether it's Azure (a new platform for scalable SaaS/Grid), Silverlight, Office Web Apps, XBox, you should think of these as replicating the original *strategy* horizontally (not the same as scaling Windows).

    Within each sub-ecosystem, Microsoft has recognized the need for a rich-to-reach continuum. If the company wants its products in front of as many folks as possible (to secure the ecosystem value as much as possible) it needs solutions which have some interoperability across the spectrum. Hence Office Apps for the Web (including a "free" ad-supported version) makes a lot of sense.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    douglas_stein@...
    07/13/2009 06:48 PM
  • I still do not see the need to pursue browser based technologies
    I quite frankly do not see the need or prudence for Silverlight in the browser with MS' Terminal Services option available. The problem is that Silverlight actually competes for mindshare with WPF and Windows, and draws attention away from the Windows desktop platform towards the browser. WPF and the Windows desktop platform in general are being ignored by developers as a result of this and other browser based technologies. MS can simplify things for developers and help restore the Windows desktop platform by saying to developers, instead of building browser based applications, build Windows desktop applications and make them available anywhere via Windows Terminal Services - while providing users the option of installing the applications on their PCs. The benefits of this approach would be significant. There would be less learning required by developers to come up to speed with MS technologies. Internet applications would: become rapidly more sophisticated; be developed more quickly and easily; have significantly better user experiences, etc. Also the advancement and growth of Internet applications would be synonymous with the advancement and growth of Windows desktop applications. Plus MS would get a chance to side step a lot of browser developer politics.

    The only significant drawback I see MS would face, is if people opted to run virtually all of their Windows application virtually instead of locally. But MS is basically facing the same problem today with browser based apps, plus MS could focus on local apps optimization functionality to skew users to download frequently used Windows desktop apps to their PCs. I therefore really do not see a compelling reason for MS to support browser based technologies when it doesn't have to, and when doing so hurts it more than helps it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    P. Douglas
    (Edited: 07/13/2009 08:29 PM)
  • RE: Microsoft Office Web Apps: No test build until August
    The host-at-your-premise/SharePoint version of Office web apps beta seems to be downloadable in the current technical preview on Connect, although everyone is saying August. Another funny thing is the build that has leaked to torrents is called Office Mondo (Mondo means huge) and it contains Visio, Project and SharePoint Designer as well, so it's definitely not Pro Plus or Home and Business. What's this SKU? It also includes a placeholder link to the "Office for Sales" components you was talking about. What's going on here?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    anonymuos
    07/14/2009 04:34 AM
  • RE: Microsoft Office Web Apps: No test build until August
    Double Post, Sorry
    ZDNet Gravatar
    RoguePlanetoid
    (Edited: 07/16/2009 07:06 AM)
  • Office.com
    Obvious why the Office Web apps are available in August, the Office.com domain doesn't become available to Microsoft until then!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    RoguePlanetoid
    07/16/2009 07:03 AM
  • RE: Microsoft Office Web Apps: No test build until August
    Well now we have Binghoo! so will this distract Google, add to Microsoft's To Do list or give another rival a shot (at Linux distro or even Search) while they both square up?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Positivemarketing.org
    (Edited: 07/29/2009 09:50 AM)

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