[Rocco Augusto]

http://www.computerworld.com/action...72&pageNumber=2

"After teasing the market multiple times, Microsoft Corp. plans to finally confirm today that it's bringing its most money-making desktop software franchise online and to smart phones. Microsoft will release lightweight versions of four components of its Microsoft Office suite for the Web and Windows Mobile smart phones, said Chris Capossela, senior vice president of Microsoft's business division, in an interview on Monday."

I was incredibly excited by this news until I stopped and started wondering - Is Microsoft going to build this to be compatible with all smartphones or are they going to go the usual Microsoft route and only make it compatible to Microsoft's horribly deficient mobile web browser? Either way, as a Windows Mobile user, this means we should have access to basic Microsoft Office elements online. Unfortunately it could mean that once again the rest of the Internet population would have to go without. Hopefully the latter is not the case. We'll keep you updated as we hear more news on this subject!

[Rocco Augusto]

http://www.computerworld.com/action...72&pageNumber=2

"After teasing the market multiple times, Microsoft Corp. plans to finally confirm today that it's bringing its most money-making desktop software franchise online and to smart phones. Microsoft will release lightweight versions of four components of its Microsoft Office suite for the Web and Windows Mobile smart phones, said Chris Capossela, senior vice president of Microsoft's business division, in an interview on Monday."

I was incredibly excited by this news until I stopped and started wondering - Is Microsoft going to build this to be compatible with all smartphones or are they going to go the usual Microsoft route and only make it compatible to Microsoft's horribly deficient mobile web browser? Either way, as a Windows Mobile user, this means we should have access to basic Microsoft Office elements online. Unfortunately it could mean that once again the rest of the Internet population would have to go without. Hopefully the latter is not the case. We'll keep you updated as we hear more news on this subject!

[Fritzly]

[QUOTE=Rocco Augusto;695228]

http://www.computerworld.com/action...72&pageNumber=2

Is Microsoft going to build this to be compatible with all smartphones or are they going to go the usual Microsoft route and only make it compatible to Microsoft's horribly deficient mobile web browser? QUOTE]

I am afraid you missed a question, and a crucial one: is this going to work with WM6/6.1
or only with WM 7, whenever it will be available?
There are Windows 7 functionalities like the VPN sans VPN that will be only available using it in conjunction with Windows server 2008 R2 so I wonder if we will see the same pattern here.
Whatever I am eager to see what MS will bring with WM 7; I would love to get back to WM... when it will catch up.

[efjay]

Why shouldnt MS tie their online software offering to their mobile OS? Google has tied its android platform to its services just as Apple has made its mobile me service accesible only to the iphone and no other mobile platform. So MS should also leverage their other software to make their own ecosystem more compelling. Just as the competition is doing. We dont see Apple and Google worrying about whether users on other OS platforms can access their sevices, do we?

[Rocco Augusto]

Originally Posted by efjay

Why shouldnt MS tie their online software offering to their mobile OS?

This is a bad idea to do since Microsoft customers use a wide variety of platforms/operating systems. This can be seen on the Apple OS X platform where Office for Mac is one of Microsoft's more popular software titles.

Bringing Office to the web we can only hope that Microsoft remembers this.

[efjay]

Originally Posted by Rocco Augusto

This is a bad idea to do since Microsoft customers use a wide variety of platforms/operating systems. This can be seen on the Apple OS X platform where Office for Mac is one of Microsoft's more popular software titles.

Bringing Office to the web we can only hope that Microsoft remembers this.

Same could be said for Apple and Google - you cant use a WM smartphone with mobile me, and Google's android cant be used online without a gmail address. MS will most likely allow access to Office online from Macs as well as PC's but I dont see why they should open it up to rival smartphone platforms - makes sense to use the model that has proved successful for apple and Google and create a Microsoft ecosystem that can be fully exploited by their mobile OS.

[tnels!]

Office 14???!!! Isn't 14 < 2007? Is this code that the functionality will be going backward when put in the Cloud??

[Rocco Augusto]

Originally Posted by efjay

Same could be said for Apple and Google - you cant use a WM smartphone with mobile me, and Google's android cant be used online without a gmail address.

Yeah but thats like comparing apples to oranges. MobileMe can arguably be said to have been created for Apple and iPhone customers. Google's Android platform was built around Google's online services, so it makes sense there to have a closed eco system as well. Microsoft creates Office for everyone and if they are taking the time to make sure it is compatible with all desktop browser it just makes sense to utilize that time to make it compatible with all mobile browsers as well.

[Fritzly]

Originally Posted by efjay

Why shouldnt MS tie their online software offering to their mobile OS?

Maybe because MS also make a MAC version of Office?
Seriously speaking Office is the cash cow for Microsoft and they should not risk to turn away people who use Symbian, or Apple or Google OSes. There are behavioural differerences between a dominant and an underdog.

[efjay]

Seems to me there's a double standard being applied to MS here. You can only use an iphone/ipod with itunes or are required to have a Gmail address to use an Android phone or have no support for Google docs (which the iphone has) but MS should open up their services to their competitors while these same competitors lock out WM devices from their services.

What does offering a Mac version of Office have to do with this? Any PC or Mac should be able to access Office online apps but for mobiles WM should be the lead platform offering the optimum experience from a mobile device.

I find it odd that people say they want MS to focus more on WM and be more aggressive but at the same time are calling for MS to make services that would make WM devices more appealing to other platforms? What is the point of having a WM device then if there is no benefit from it being part of the Windows family and offering a more intergrated experience?

[Craig Horlacher]

I just want to drop a plug for OpenOffice 3. If you haven't tried OOo for a long time you should give it a go! It does everything I need. It's had native support for pocket word and excel files for a long time. It has PDF creation built into all it's apps.

I'll also recommend SoftMaker Office on the Pocket PC. If you haven't tried it, you should. It's pretty much like having the complete versions of MS Office on the pocket pc! It supports nearly all desktop office formats including OO and MS Office up to 2007. It also has PDF creation built into the apps. It now has bluetooth printing support built in as well.

I appologize if you feel this post is off topic. I just know that you can get nearly full office functionality *now* from SoftMaker and OOo just keeps getting better and it's still free!