14 DAY TRIAL // The next version of the Office System has been pushed to next year. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer revealed in his “Strategic Update” briefing with Wall Street analysts today, February 24, 2009 that Office 14 would not be made available in 2009. “Office 14 will not be this year,” is what Ballmer stated, according to Mary Jo Foley. Just as is the case with the Windows client, Microsoft has kept not only development milestone dates, but also the general availability date for Office 14 under a tight lid. However, until Ballmer's address to Wall Street analysts, both the end of 2009 and the start of 2010 were considered valid possibilities for the successor of Office 2007 to drop.
This will not be the case, as Ballmer now confirmed officially. The latest when users should be expecting Office 14 is 2010, and Microsoft continues not to provide the actual GA date. In this context, customers looking to upgrade their productivity solutions from Microsoft will have to wait a tad longer than was initially reported.
At the start of January 2009, the software giant managed to confirm the release of the first Alpha build of Office 14, the codename for the next version of the Office system. The Redmond company only confirmed that a select group of testers were served Office 14 Alpha, but indicated that it was not ready in any way to discuss details related to the first beta version of the product. However, also in January, following the company's confirmation that Office 14 Alpha was indeed available, the first screenshots and leaked information on the release became available to the public.
Unlike its precursor, Office 14 will follow Windows 7 in stretching into the Cloud. Both Microsoft's cash cows are a turning point in the evolution of the company's business strategy, which aims to adapt to scenarios in which software products are no longer exclusively anchored on the desktop. In this context, Microsoft has already confirmed that it will make available web-based components of Office 14 to rival Google Docs and Spreadsheets and other productivity solutions offered as services.