Microsoft is planning an Office party on Monday
Microsoft is planning to announce Office Web Applications and the Office 2010 beta at the company's annual Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans next Monday. — Neowin hinted at the announcements yesterday but insider sources …
Context & Ripple Effects
Neowin's Monday-eve report builds on its own hint from the previous day, citing insider sources that point to Microsoft's annual Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans as the stage for both an [[a:|Office Web Applications]] unveiling and an Office 2010 beta — neither confirmed until Microsoft takes the podium. The company has already been priming the 2010 message: it released a Clippy-starring promo video this week as part of an action-movie-themed teaser series.
The rumored announcements land in a crowded Microsoft news cycle: Silverlight 3 became available a day earlier than expected, and Hitwise reported Bing gaining search share month-over-month in June after launch — momentum the partner conference keynote would ride.
First-order effects
- Partners attending the New Orleans conference would be first in line for the Office 2010 beta, seeding testing and feedback through Microsoft's channel months before general availability.
- If the Office Web Applications rumor holds, the suite extends into the browser on top of the Silverlight 3 runtime Microsoft shipped earlier this week, making the two launches mutually reinforcing.
Second-order effects
- A browser-accessible Office splits the product line between installed and web versions, forcing partners who build deployment and support practices around per-seat licensing to reposition their services.
- The Clippy-led teaser campaign shows Microsoft investing in consumer-grade buzz ahead of the beta, raising the marketing bar for the 2010 cycle before a single line of code ships publicly.
Third-order effects
- Seeding betas through the partner channel while pushing the core suite into the browser points toward Office shifting from periodic boxed upgrades toward continuously updated, network-delivered software — a structural change to licensing and the partner ecosystem if the pattern holds.
The trend: Productivity software is moving from boxed, per-release upgrades to browser-delivered suites, with Microsoft using its Worldwide Partner Conference as the launch stage for that transition.