It seems like Microsoft is in no mood to reply back to Google by any of its comments. But it took a completely different path and plans to offer a free, lightweight Web version of MS Office productivity suite.

Microsoft said that the Web app will come as part of the next major release, Office 2010 which is entering an invite-only technical preview, with general availability projected for the first half of the next year. In the offering you will get to see the online version of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. The good news is that the users will be able to access the free versions regardless of whether they buy a copy or Office 2010 or not.

Office 2010 seems to be similar to free offerings from Google and Zoho (both of them offer word processing, presentation and spreadsheet applications.)

Let’s review few of its Enterprise Advantages

What makes Microsoft’s app to stand out is its approach that allows the users to host the documents on their own networks which is contrary to the Google and Zoho’s applications, as per Forrester analyst Sheri McLeish.

The online version of MS Office 2010 is an interesting way to attract the enterprise customers who were reluctant to get into the world on computing but need to update their age old productivity suites.

McLeish also said, "That very well could be a differentiators for Microsoft here."

According to Rob Enderle, principal analyst with the Enderle Group, all Microsoft is trying to do is to hold its existing customers before Google figures out a way to market it's free productivity suite which will attract lots of consumers.

Rob Enderle also said that, "Microsoft knows they've got to get as many people on Office 2010 as they can before Google gets with it. Not having [online access] would clearly put them at a competitive disadvantage."

Acceptance level still seems to be low

In a report by Forrester which was released in March, only 3 percent of U.S. and Canadian consumers use online productivity applications on a regular basis whereas, around 75 percent of online adults own paid licenses for Office applications.

Forrester also said that Microsoft cannot take its competitive dominance for granted and also called the online space as "ripe for growth" among young, educated and tech-savvy consumers.

Also 36 percent of consumers in Forrester’s survey said that they had tried the online software that they considered to be at least as good as purchased software.

At the end Forrester only had to say that, "The value of the cloud, combined with disillusionment over paid software, creates latent demand among consumers that Web-based challengers can tap,"

Microsoft received lot of competition from its competitors lately, with successful campaigns from Apple like “I’m a Mac” ads, and also a series of quirky spots characterizing modern search engines which also gave the market leader Google sleepless nights.

Enderle said, “Microsoft would do well to extend that trend to its upcoming Office release and it appears the company may be doing just that.”

Microsoft took a stylish way to promote its upcoming suite by producing a movie-trailer which focuses on details about Office. It is more on style than on cheeky references to the suite’s “Clippy” search assistant.

Inadequate Details

As not much is known about the application, we are waiting for the full details to be out. What we know is that the latest update of Office won’t be a cut-off point for the 2007 update as its significant user interface changes to Microsoft Word, as per McLeish. The interface will however extend to the other programs within the suite.

As of now Microsoft is in no mood to respond to the inquiries about the company’s plans for Office 2010. All what we know is that the suite will include more improved features for Word, PowerPoint and OneNote. It also has a ability to ignore unwanted email threads in Outlook. Excel is incorporated with new features to help visualize data trends and the suite will also support basic image editing. At the initial stage Microsoft plans to offer fewer versions of the product rather than the whole product. As of now they have plans to release five of them instead of eight.