Microsoft Kicks Off “Office 15” Technical Preview

“Office 15”, the next generation of Microsoft’s productivity suite, has just begun its public journey. On January 30th, 2012, Microsoft announced the beginning of the Office 15 Technical Preview Program.

This is an important milestone for the software’s development team, which should be followed by the public beta release of the app in summer.

This is the first time details on the upcoming product are shared with the public, though only a few Microsoft customers were offered the possibility to have a look at it.

With Office 15, Microsoft brings together Microsoft Office cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients and plans on delivering updates for them simultaneously.

“Office 15 is the codename for the next generation of the Microsoft Office products and services, and the Technical Preview is the first time we share our work with a select group of customers under non-disclosure agreements,” PJ Hough, CVP of Development, Microsoft Office Division, explains.

“These customers play a key role in our development process by testing early builds and providing feedback, which we incorporate into the final release.”

While no details on the product itself have been made available for the moment, Microsoft did say that they planned on making an important step forward with it.

“With Office 15, for the first time ever, we will simultaneously update our cloud services, servers, and mobile and PC clients for Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, Project, and Visio,” Hough notes in a recent blog post.

“Quite simply, Office 15 will help people work, collaborate, and communicate smarter and faster than ever before.”

The Technical Preview program is full, but Microsoft plans on releasing Office 15 to the public later this summer, in a beta flavor. Additional details on the productivity suite will be shared at that time.

Some of the previous reports on Microsoft’s Office 15 suggested that it might be designed in line with the new Windows 8 platform, and that it could sport Metro UI enhancements. However, the ribbon interface would still be there, some say.