Microsoft unveils new Office 15 to work with social and cloud features for Windows 8 touch-screen devices. Video.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesùs.

Microsoft unveils new Office 15 to work with social and cloud features for  Windows 8 touch-screen devices. Video.

“We are taking bold steps at Microsoft,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said at an event today in San Francisco. “The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8.” 

The updated Office will save documents to Microsoft’s Internet-based cloud storage service SkyDrive, enabling access to files via tablets, computers and phones. Customers will also be able to buy the software as a subscription, which will let them use the cloud to stream applications to any Windows-based PC. Subscribers also get future upgrades automatically.

“We are seeing Microsoft update almost its entire product line this year with laser alignment around touch interfaces built into Windows 8,” said Al Hilwa, an analyst at IDC, in an e-mail. “This is clearly a process that is several years in the making and should be seen as a huge bet the company is making to usurp the disruptive innovation brought about by touch screens and cloud services.”

Besides touch controls, the program will also allow users control programs and take notes with a stylus.

Social features will include tools Microsoft is gaining from its $1.2 billion purchase of corporate social-network operator Yammer Inc. last month. Yammer offers a Facebook-like experience that enables employees to collaborate in the workplace.

Another tool, called People Card, lets users see their contacts anywhere in Office, including photos, status updates and information on whether they are online. The Office suite also comes with Skype Internet-calling, which Microsoft gained in its $8.5 billion purchase of Skype Technologies SA last year.

“This is the most ambitious release of Microsoft Office we’ve ever done,” Ballmer said. 

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, has said it will provide the touch-enabled versions of Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint available on its upcoming Windows RT operating system, which will be released in late October and is designed for tablet computers to rival Apple Inc.’s iPad. 

Watch the video below where Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division at Microsoft Corp., talks about the next version of its software.

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division at Microsoft Corp., talks about the next version of its software with social and cloud features that will work with touch-screen devices powered by its Windows 8 operating system. He speaks with Cory Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)