Microsoft gives Office a 2013 touch up

Microsoft has unveiled a touch-ready version of Office, the latest version of the company’s market-leading productivity software suite.

It has been labelled as the firms “most ambitious release” to date.

The software is primed for mobile devices, cloud computing and social networking.

Office is the world’s most popular productivity application, with a billion users worldwide.

It is also Microsoft’s key revenue driver, and keeping it fresh is how the firm intends to maintain its market lead.

Throughout the hour-long demonstration on Monday, Mr Ballmer and Kirk Koenigsbauer, Vice President of Microsoft’s Office division, highlighted how the software had been adapted to keep its pace with technology changes.

Office 2012 is fully touch-ready, as is Windows 8, the company’s latest operating system, and its new tablet computer, Surface, which we expect to be released in October.

For the first time, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook are all responsive to touch-screen controls – taps, swipes and pinch-and-zoom can be used within documents, files and presentations. The user-experience is designed to be more immersive, visceral and multimedia-rich compared to earlier versions of Office.

In 2011, Microsoft Office was worth $14bm, more than half the company’s profits and while there are less expensive and free online alternatives to office like Google Apps, Zoho and Open Office. No company is taking away significant market share from Microsoft. And, although there has been some compatibly issues surrounding many versions of MS Office, that have been a big hurdle, it has kept its vast majority of users in the Microsoft camp.

About Andy Carroll

By Andy Carroll, MD, ITexpress. ITexpress deliver IT and Computer Supportand Systems, Web Design and Marketing, Payroll Solutions, and PAT Testing. Based in Goole, East Yorkshire, ITexpress have been helping customers with their IT problems since 1999.