With rivals like Google, Zoho and others gaining traction in the online apps space, Microsoft is now unleashing its own Web-based productivity suite. Office Web Apps is available to users of Microsoft Office 2010, which is currently shipping for volume-licensing customers and is poised to ship next month for consumers.
Owning Microsoft Office 2010 isn’t the only way users can get access to Office Web Apps, however: The company is close to offering a free, advertising-based version of its cloud-based apps to users, also starting next month. Datamation has the story.
Microsoft has confirmed that the free editions of its Office Web Apps — the Web-based versions of the company’s core productivity applications, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote — will debut on June 15, the same date that consumer editions of the Office 2010 suite will also go on sale.
The full-scale Office 2010 applications became available for volume buyers on Wednesday, when the company officially launched the business editions of Office 2010 during a gala at New York’s NBC Studios. The launch also included the debut of Office Web Apps for volume-licensing customers.