Yesterday guys over Windows Live has announced the availability of Office Web Apps for a restricted number of people who were in the Office 2010 Technical Preview Program. What’s interesting is that they also stated, as the product going to the final release, this tool will be available for everybody. Basically all you need is a Windows Live ID.
Starting today, a select group of SkyDrive customers will be invited to try out a technical preview of the online versions of Microsoft Office Excel, Word and PowerPoint, also known as the Office Web Apps, integrated right inside their Windows Live SkyDrive experience. Over time, as the final version is released, the Office Web Apps will become available to all 500 million+ users of Hotmail, Messenger and other Windows Live services.
Here is the demo of what the future of Office Web App will be looks like.
I personally think this trend of web app, and brings their key product Office into web and free access for the general public will be a major hit. As now more and more applications are running “virtually” in the web browser. Gmail is the best example, what Gmail can do in the browser sometimes is more than Outlook. Web App has the advantage of not taking your hard drive space for storing the application locally, user will also benefit from the flexibility, since upgrading web application does not require user to download any patch or service pack. All the core components are over the cloud, users will also stay the latest version of the software.
If you are interested you can sign up for the early notification here
Source via Windows Live Team Blog
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