Microsoft is surveying prospective consumers regarding what it ought to identify its forthcoming Workplace Internet Programs suite.As LiveSide.Net is reporting, amongst the handful of Office Internet Apps brand names underneath consideration are Microsoft Ensemble,
Office Professional Plus 2010, Microsoft Optro, Microsoft ArcLight, Microsoft Offsite and Microsoft Equipt. (Indeed, they're within the midst of killing off the present Equipt subscription services. But why allow an already trademarked identify visit waste?)Microsoft also is sharing a little more positioning facts regarding the forthcoming suite of Web-hosted Phrase, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote apps that it can be expected to release to a wider group of testers in mid-July, as component with the Office 2010 Community Technology Preview.Based on a Internet survey which seems to become aimed extra at IT pros and developers than consumers,
Windows 7, Microsoft is obviously positioning Office Internet Apps as complements to client-based Office, not being a replacement to it. The survey asks which with the above-mentioned names does the most beneficial job of describing an providing that would compete with Google Apps, Google;s hosted app suite aimed at organization users.Microsoft is expected to create Workplace Web Apps a absolutely free, ad-supported suite for individuals,
Office 2010 Professional Plus, but a compensated,
Office 2007 Enterprise, subscription-based services for enterprise buyers.The survey also highlights a number of the forthcoming integration among Microsoft Office and Workplace Internet Apps that Microsoft is incorporating in to the Web-based product. The Workplace Web Apps release will supply people with synchronization of e-mail, calendar and speak to things among Internet browsers (not only Internet Explorer,
Office Professional 2010, but also Safari and Firefox), desktop applications (via Outlook) and cellular devies (Windows Cellular phones, Blackberries and iPhones).Workplace Internet Apps also will enable end users to get their voicemails delivered to their e-mail inboxes, permitting them to listen or study a transcription of their messages; shop and share documents over the Web; and communicate through “business-grade” instant messaging tools that are connected to Outlook address books, the survey says.I think a number of testers — and ultimately, consumers — are going to become a little allow down by Office Internet Apps. Microsoft officials have been touting them as Web-based versions of current Workplace apps. But from what I;m hearing from my sources, these Web apps are definitely a lot more like service complements to Office than alternatives to it. It sounds like SharePoint is the unheralded middleman inside the Workplace Web Apps scenario, and processes like saving and printing documents may not be attainable without going as a result of SharePoint first.Microsoft officials aren;t discussing particulars in relation to Workplace Web Apps, although they are anticipated to share a lot more particulars (and code) at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans in mid-July.Which with the potential new names for Office Internet Apps do you think Microsoft should certainly choose? What kinds of capabilities do you think the Workplace Web Apps suite should have to get a real competitor to Google Apps?