Microsoft will include Office apps with smartphones and mini tablets when the Windows 10 operating system ships later this year.
Like the new OS, the apps are meant to provide a consistent experience across a wide range of devices, from pocket-sized units to massive interactive displays for corporate conference rooms.
Apart from a more touch-friendly interface, Office for Windows 10 will include new productivity-enhancing features—for example, one borrowed from the company’s cloud-based version of Word.
This is the new Insights for Office search feature powered by Bing that brings images and other Web references into documents.
Windows 10 is Microsoft’s boldest attempt to deliver what the company has been working toward and what developers have long been looking for: one platform for developing apps that run on phones, PCs, tablets and other devices.
Recently, Steve “Guggs” Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Developer Platform & Evangelism and chief evangelist for Microsoft, explained that Windows 10 will offer developers the power and reach of a unified platform.
Top officials at Dell and Lenovo delivered the same message last week at the World Economic Forum: The PC business isn’t going anywhere.
CEO Michael Dell and Gerry Smith, president of Lenovo Americas, said in separate interviews on CNBC’s Squawk Box that despite several years of declining PC sales worldwide, the market is stabilizing and the future of the systems is strong.
Dropbox Product Manager Matthew Jaffee announced the next phase of the company’s partnership with Microsoft: the Dropbox app, which is now available for Windows phones and tablets.
The new app for Windows Phone, Windows RT and Windows 8.1 devices provides users with an alternative to Microsoft’s own cloud storage service, OneDrive.
Microsoft has been focused on deeply integrating its OneDrive service—formerly called SkyDrive—with its Windows operating system and Office software in recent years.