ReadWriteWeb nicely summarizes the product announcement by Microsoft to offer web-based versions of Office. Its about time. We predicted this strategy back in March.
What was missing from today's announcement were two aspects:
- An offline version of Silverlight - similar to Adobe's AIR. I can write a Flex app and have it run (using AIR) in a disconnected mode. Can't do that yet for Silverlight. Until offline Silverlight is figured out, this will stymie corporate users who still want to jockey around with PowerPoint while sitting at 30,000 feet.
- An ad-supported, free version. MS could mimic the GMail strategy - give away a scaled down version of Office for free in exchange for ad space. MS paid alot for aQuantive, one of the largest ad serving networks in the world. How about some business unit synergy???
