Microsoft Web Apps Compatibility Issue Revealed

The full beta version of Web Apps will be released before the end of 2009, according to Microsoft. Despite that limited functionality, the technical preview offers an idea of how Microsoft is proceeding into the cloud-based productivity space, an arena already occupied most notably by Google Apps and other free applications.

By offering a stripped-down, browser-accessible version of its Office applications, Microsoft evidently hopes that it can seize market-share in the growing cloud-productivity market. Office Web Apps will support browsers including Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox; in addition, multiple users will simultaneously have the ability to edit Excel Web App or OneNote Web App documents from within the browser, and then publish Excel data or PowerPoint presentations to third-party websites, blogs or wikis (with embedded information within those documents automatically updated whenever a change is made).

Despite this functionality, and a standard-issue toolbar inserted into Web Apps in order to give it a desktop Office feel, Microsoft will not include certain features in the online version that will be available in the full Office 2010. When Microsoft releases Office 2010 next year, it will offer the productivity suite as both a hosted subscription service and as an on-premises application.