Microsoft Office Web: Good for Its Competitors?

The much-anticipated online version of Microsoft Office will roll out into Technical Preview later this summer. While Microsoft has announced that it will be free to everyone with a Windows Live account (and thus free to anyone), it looks like the free version will not have the full feature set. In a detailed post over on GigaOM Pro (subscription required), Tom Reestman explains that this is a case of Microsoft tripping over itself by wanting the best of both worlds — to offer a free, web-based solution for consumers that leverages the Office brand to compete with Google Apps and Zoho, while at the same time telling businesses that it’s really just a supplement to the “real” Office on the desktop, and that it will require licensing and server costs in order to get the full package.

Microsoft has a great brand in Office, a huge user base and an opportunity to come up with an online product that blows its online competitors out of the water — unfortunately, as it’s still heavily reliant on revenues from the desktop version of the suite, it looks like the web app will be compromised, which is good news for both Google and Zoho.

Are you looking forward to Office Web?

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