While “Blue,” the code-name for the next release for Windows and several other Microsoft products, has been getting a lot of play lately, the new generation of Office has been labeled as “Gemini.”

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley writes today that Gemini encapsulates the next generation of updates for Office that will be coming down the line in the next few years. This very well could include apps that have the “modern” Windows 8 interface that is better designed for touch than the desktop versions it offers now. Microsoft already offers OneNote and Lync as modern Windows 8 apps, but staples like Word and Excel have not been given that treatment.

In the past few months, Microsoft released new versions of Office 365 and Office 2013 for consumers and businesses. But if Foley’s sources are correct, we’ll only have to wait until the fall to see updated versions of Office programs associated with Gemini.

It appears that new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote will all be out this fall, with other programs getting touched next year. This release will coordinate with the release of Windows Blue, a big upgrade to Windows 8 that fixes some of the more annoying problems in that operating system.

Microsoft will be holding its next Build conference on June 26 through 28 in San Francisco. We expect to hear details about Blue and Gemini there.

Top photo via Microsoft

In the tech world, you’ve got bad decisions, and you’ve got really bad decisions.

Microsoft’s move to block Office users from transferring their Office licenses to new computers falls into the latter category. Now, the company is reversing the decision after customer feedback made it loud and clear that they weren’t happy with the move.

Here’s how the company put it in a post on the Office blog:

Based on customer feedback, we have changed the Office 2013 retail license agreement to allow customers to move the software from one computer to another. This means customers can transfer Office 2013 to a different computer if their device fails or they get a new one. Previously, customers could only transfer their Office 2013 software to a new device if their PC failed under warranty.

Essentially, the new terms are more or less identical to those for Office 2010 and are a welcome change from Microsoft’s previously draconian “You may not transfer the software to another computer or user” language with Office 2013.

Microsoft’s move comes as the company is transitioning to a subscription-based model for Office with Office 365, which you can use on multiple computers for a monthly fee. But while subscriptions may work for some, lots of people still aren’t particularly crazy about subscribing to software, no matter how hard Microsoft pushes it.

Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Looks like connecting the world’s top document software with the cloud is paying off. Microsoft has announced that more than one billion Office documents are now stored in SkyDrive, following the launch of Office 365 Home Premium last week.

SkyDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage solution for consumers and businesses. To account for the growing reliance people have on the cloud, Microsoft made it so that Office 365 simultaneously saves documents to a local hard drive and SkyDrive to make sure your documents are always backed up. That set up has clearly increased SkyDrive usage, along with the growing number of SkyDrive users using Windows 8, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone apps.

Microsoft Group Program Manager Omar Shahine writes in a blog post today:

Last week Office 365 Home Premium launched and we’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm over the seamless integration of SkyDrive for saving and sharing your docs. Recently we reached a big milestone; our customers are now storing over a billion Office documents on SkyDrive! We’re really excited about the feedback we’ve seen around the new version of Office and the deep integration of SkyDrive. We’re taking it a step further today by announcing a new feature in SkyDrive and the Office Web Apps that allows a more seamless sharing and editing experience for our customers.

The new sharing and editing feature is relatively minor, but we’ll take any feature that makes our lives a little easier. Microsoft has made it so that all recipients you send a SkyDrive “edit link” to will be able to make changes to a document in Office Web Apps without signing into a Microsoft account. Ideally, that makes editing and collaborating on documents using SkyDrive less of a hassle.

Have you tried SkyDrive or are Dropbox and Google Drive more your thing?

Powerpoint image via Microsoft

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

If Microsoft wants to win in 2013, it needs to win in the mobile realm. That much is clear. But how does it take the crown from the likes of Apple and Google?

While Microsoft wouldn’t explicitly tell me about its plans for 2013 or generally talk about what it wants to accomplish, there is a lot we can glean from looking at what Microsoft did in 2012 and from the company’s previous statements. I’ve also talked to two experts who have kept close tabs on Microsoft’s product strategy over the years.

Here are three big things Microsoft will focus on in 2013:

Tablets, tablets, tablets

With the launch of the Surface RT and the Surface Pro, it’s clear Microsoft wants to be part of the tablet conversation. Microsoft was actually one of the first players in tablets back in the early 2000s, but the market shrugged off its efforts. Now that Apple’s iPad and Android tablets like the Nexus 7 have come to dominate the slate space and PC sales are falling off, Microsoft wants to get back in the tablet game.

“Microsoft will place a do-not-fail priority on tablets in 2013,” Forrester infrastructure and operations analyst David Johnson told me.

Johnson does not expect Microsoft to release its own smartphone hardware this year, so tablets will get full priority. Besides making Surface better, he said the other big priority will be making Windows RT lighter and better.

“I’d expect RT to be the focus for now, but they could do an entirely new tablet OS as well if that doesn’t work out,” Johnson said.

Office 365 and Office 2013

Another major tool in Microsoft’s belt is Office. Outside of Windows OS and Windows Server, Office has been the most important product in the company’s history. The latest version of the productivity suite for consumers just hit the market this week, and it’s actually quite nice.

Microsoft is pushing its Office 365 subscription service, which runs $100 per year, as the best deal you can get. A subscription to Office 365 lets you install five copies on your PCs or Macs and deeply connects to the cloud to back up your documents. Office 365 also gets you Office on Demand, which lets you stream a copy of Office to any Windows 7 or 8 PC and doesn’t count toward your number of installs. There’s also a version for students — Office 365 University, which costs $80 for four years of use.

The new versions of Office 365 and 2013 are more touch-friendly, so it’s somewhat better suited for tablets and touch-screen laptops. The most basic version of the latest Office comes pre-installed on the Surface RT tablet and will be able to be installed on the Surface Pro tablet, which hits stores on Feb. 9. A mobile version of Office also comes pre-installed on Windows Phone devices, one of the biggest selling points for that OS.

There have been perpetual rumors that Microsoft will release native Office apps for iOS and Android some time this year. But Microsoft has routinely denied these rumors.

“It’s not certain, but I’m betting on Office for iOS and Android,” Johnson said. “Enterprises won’t be proactively buying Surface Pros. Employees might not want to buy Surfaces, but they could buy iPads for work.”

Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, also believes iOS and Android apps for Office are on the way.

“If Microsoft doesn’t put Office on those platforms, it risks losing that franchise,” Greengart said. “It’s also important for Microsoft to develop a more touch-friendly version of Office for Windows tablets. The version today is not there yet.”

Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps

The third pillar for Microsoft’s mobile success in 2013 will be apps built for Windows 8 and Windows Phone that help get people better interested in those platforms. Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 together have millions of users, and the two even share a kernel so it’s easier to develop for both platforms at the same time.

“It’s all about apps,” Johnson said. “Apps on Windows Phone are good, but they’re not quite as complete as iOS and Android apps. 2013 will see a big push on app development.”

Windows 8 especially needs apps to get people excited about tablets like Surface and hybrid laptops like the Lenovo Thinkpad Helix or Samsung’s ATIV Smart PCs running that OS. A number of good applications already exist for Windows 8, but will the company invest further to make Windows 8 a must-have OS?

And better apps on Windows Phone certainly wouldn’t hurt either. Windows Phone sales haven’t been particularly impressive, but they could get better with smart productivity apps and imaginative Xbox games. Hell, the success of Microsoft’s Xbox console could arguably be traced back to exclusive titles like Halo and Halo 2, so why not have an exclusive set of games on Windows Phone to help turn heads?

Greengart thinks Microsoft needs to bring an exclusive Halo game to Windows Phone and improve the overall presence of Xbox on Windows Phone.

“Game exclusives could drive adoption of the Windows Phone platform,” Greengart said. “Why isn’t there a Halo application for Windows Phone? Where are the games that are branded with more than just your Xbox Live avatar? These issues need to be addressed.”

What do you think will drive Microsoft’s mobile destiny in 2013?

Steve Ballmer photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Microsoft finally launched the consumer versions of Office 365 and Office 2013 this week. But, you ask, is it really worth the cost? In many cases, the answer is — surprisingly — yes.

The way most of us have used Microsoft Office over the years has stayed the same, but the software suite is changing radically, with a hard emphasis on getting consumers to subscribe. Trying to adapt to increasingly mobile consumers, Microsoft wants you to have Office everywhere you go and wants you connected to the cloud.

Microsoft’s answer to this problem is Office 365, which is a subscription version of the new Office 2013 software. Office 365 gives you subscription access to the software, and you can use it from a number of devices (up to five devices for the one-year, $100 consumer subscription; or two devices for the four-year, $80 student edition — see details below). It adds a couple of cloud-based and instant-messaging features. But otherwise, its components are the same as those of Office 2013, which is a more traditional software package ($140 and up for a permanent license that you can install on a single PC).

I’ve tested Office 2013 and the new Office 365 on a Windows 8 tablet and a Windows 7 PC, and it’s a clear evolution of the software. It addresses mobility, the multidevice lifestyle many professionals live, and connections to the cloud much better than the 2010 version of Office and the previous Office 365.

Still, you ask, why the hell should I subscribe to something when I can just pay once and be done with it? Bear with us for a minute as I explain.

Pricing and programs

First up, let’s talk about the cost and what programs you actually get with each Office option that’s being offered as of this week.

Here’s the breakdown of what you can get:

• Office 365 Home Premium: $99 per year — five devices — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
• Office 365 University: $80 for 4 years — two devices — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
• Office 2013 Home & Student: $140 — one device — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
• Office 2013 Home & Business: $220 — one device — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook
• Office 2013 Pro: — $400 — one device — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access

With that out of the way, I can dig into why you might be better off by subscribing to 365 rather than buying a single copy of Office 2013.

New features in Office 2013

Since Office 365 is essentially subscribing for access to all of Office 2013′s programs and some bonuses, let’s talk about what’s new in 2013.

First, the suite’s polish emphasizes clean design, large fonts, and thinking of what you need before you need it. The ribbon interface first introduced in Office 2007 is still around, but it now has larger text and a way to easily minimize the ribbon if you want it hidden.

Handy features in here firmly enhance the experiences of each app. One feature that helps you through each app is a new start screen that pops up when you start Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other suite programs that shows popular template options. One feature that helps in PowerPoint is the new Presenter View, which previews slides and other info on your PC’s screen while giving a presentation. In Excel, an awesome feature called Flash Fill auto-predicts the info you’re typing in cells. And in Outlook, Peeks lets you hover to view your calendar without actually leaving the inbox.

Office 2013 is also designed to better work with touchscreens, and some elements are larger to account for tapping instead of clicking. However, between touchscreen use and using a traditional mouse-and-keyboard, I would much rather control it the traditional way. Maybe my fingers are too large, but it was often frustrating to tap the right options I wanted. Microsoft needs to work with some talented interface designers to make a completely touch-focused of this software.

Office Apps are another new aspect of Office 2013. You can install these apps to add new functionality and third-party interaction to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or more. Take a look at some of the apps you can install below.

Reasons to subscribe to Office 365 Home Premium

Here are several reasons why I think Office 365 is a good deal for $100 a year:

Multiple devices: It works on five devices, including PCs running Windows 7 and 8 and Macs running OS X 10.5.8 or later. For those of you, like me, who have multiple devices and don’t want to buy a copy for each, this is a great solution. Imagine if you have a desktop and laptop and need Outlook. Two copies of Office 2013 Home & Business will cost you $440 up front. I’d much rather pay $100 a year in that circumstance.

Office on Demand: Office on Demand is a feature that enables you to use Office on a Windows 7 or 8 PC that is not one of your five installs. For example, if you are at a friend’s house or a satellite office, you still have access to Office. Once you sign in to your Microsoft account on Office.com, Microsoft streams a copy of Office from the cloud down to that computer and you can save your work to the cloud. When you are finished with your Office on Demand session, the copy disappears and removes all traces you were there.

Cloud connectivity: Office 365 is super-connected to the cloud. When you save a document in Word or Excel, it saves simultaneously to SkyDrive and to the computer’s hard drive. That way, no matter where you access a document, you have the latest version of it on hand. Office 365 subscribers also get 60 free Skype minutes per month and a boost in SkyDrive storage from 7GB to 20GB.

Updates: While a standard copy of Office 2013 will get security updates, the software in Office 365 will continually be updated with many more features.

Students get a killer deal: Office 365 University is a fantastic value for students at $80 for four years. You only get two device installs, but Office on Demand means you can use it on many other PCs. (Like the university computer lab.) Microsoft says it will let students renew the deal a single time, which helps if they need extra time to get their degree or go to grad school.

Using Office 365

In several days of using Office 365, I’ve rather come to like it, although I experienced a few hang-ups. Installation was not hard and only took a few minutes on my Windows 7 desktop PC over a wired connection. While it was still finishing the installation of the programs, Office immediately let me use the majority of those programs if I was seriously impatient.

Using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the other programs was reminiscent of using older versions with thoughtful additions. As noted above, the new features in Office 2013 are handy, and after using certain tools, it would be hard to go back. After using Form Fill in Excel, I can’t imagine ever trying to do serious spreadsheet work in something other than Excel. I don’t use spreadsheets often, but I’m sure those that do will love Excel 2013. If you’re a someone who gives a lot of presentations as part of your job, you’ll likely get a kick out of PowerPoint 2013 because it offers more features and the Presenter View is smart.

I tested Office on Demand on a Samsung ATIV PC running Windows 8. It actually didn’t work as well as I wanted because my wireless Internet connection often wasn’t fast enough to download and stream the programs. After waiting for several minutes for Word on Demand to open up, it finally started letting me write a document. While I was writing the doc, it would sometimes become unresponsive while it was loading data. When I had a strong Internet conneciton, the service was more responsive and was easier to use.

Overall, Office 365 works smoothly and mostly as advertised. Once small businesses can get in on the action (more on that in a bit), it could be a compelling option for them if they aren’t already aboard the Google Apps train.

Reasons to skip Office 365

While we think Office 365 is generally a good deal for those who need powerful productivity software, I have some good reasons for you to skip it.

First, if your needs for productivity software are extremely simple, you have no reason to invest this much money in Office. You can easily use Google Docs or OpenOffice for free and get basic document, spreadsheet, and presentation editing. But if you want the most features and versatility, Office programs like Excel and PowerPoint are much more powerful.

Second, being tied to a subscription service could make some folks nervous. What if your subscription expires? Will your data and programs disappear? As ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley points out, Microsoft will notify you that your subscription has not been renewed and will permit the download of any documents in the cloud to your hard drive. The Office programs themselves will enter a “read-only reduced functionality mode,” so you won’t be able to fully use them like you once did until your renew.

Another reason to skip? You truly only need a single copy of Office and don’t want to be on the hook for subscription costs. Let’s say you have just one home PC and you only need Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for your productivity needs. It would be better to purchase a single copy of Office 2013 Home & Student for $140, and you’ll have it for life.

Finally, if you already have a copy of Office 2010, you probably don’t need to jump on the Office 365 bandwagon just yet. However, give it a few more years and you might want to get in. Those who have Office 2007 or before actually should consider the upgrade since there have been so many improvements since that release.

What’s next on the Office front

Microsoft plans to announce pricing and details for Office 365 for small businesses on Feb. 27. The company hasn’t explained how it will differ from Office 365 Home Premium yet, but we suspect it will offer various group editing and collaboration features in the cloud.

We also expect Microsoft is hard at work on full-fledged touch-based applications for iOS, Android, and Windows 8/RT platforms. Microsoft has routinely denied that native iOS and Android apps for Office are coming, but leaks and rumors suggest otherwise. We will see.

Wrap-up

Office 365 is the right move for Microsoft and shows a willingness to give a lot in order to attract subscribers. For $99 a year, you get access a constantly updated version of Office that accounts for having multiple computers and the chance you’ll need to use Office on a PC that isn’t yours. We think a lot of consumers and business folks will dig it.

Check out more images of Office 365 and Office 2013 below:

After teasing its launch for many months, Microsoft has finally released several consumer-focused versions of Office 365 and Office 2013 to 162 markets.

After Windows, Office is arguably Microsoft’s most important product and helps the company make a lot of cash. Office programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are staples around the world for productivity, and while compelling alternatives do exist, these apps are still the standard for how we get work done.

But times have changed since Office debuted in 1990, and Microsoft is trying to adapt to how we work now. We’re much more mobile, we have more devices, and we’re more likely to subscribe to software at a reasonable price than pay a ton upfront. (Adobe has noticed these trends too.)

So Microsoft is offering different plans for the newest version of Office and trying to coax consumers and students with a relatively decent subscription deal. Or you can get into Office “the old way” and buy a single copy for a single PC.

Here are the details on how Microsoft is now offering up Office 365 and Office 2013.

Office 365

Office 365 Home Premium — $99/year — 5 devices

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access

Microsoft is prioritizing Office 365 Home Premium as its top offering for consumers. With it, you can install a copy of the software on five different devices, including PCs and Macs. The software ties itself to one Microsoft account and lets you use that account to manage it in the cloud.

Office 365 Home Premium is cloud-connected in several ways. For example, when you save a document in Word or Excel, it saves simultaneously to SkyDrive and to the computer’s hard drive. That way, no matter where you access a document, you have the latest version of it. Office 365 subscribers also get 60 free Skype minutes per month and get a boost in SkyDrive storage from 7GB to 20GB.

Additionally, subscribing to Office 365 gets you an ingenious feature — Office on Demand. Essentially, whenever you are on a Windows 7 or 8 PC that is not one of your five installs (let’s say you’re at a friend’s house or a satellite office), you will still have access to Office. Microsoft actually streams a copy of Office from the cloud down to that computer and you can save your work to the cloud. When you are finished with your Office on Demand session, the copy disappears and removes all traces you were there. (We wish this worked on Macs too, but hey, can’t win ‘em all.)

“We want to drive the most demand for this,” Jevon Fark, senior marketing manager at Microsoft told VentureBeat. “This is easily the most ambitious version we’ve ever offered in the 25-year history of Office.”

Office 365 University — $80 for 4 years — 2 devices

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access

The company will also offer a version of Office 365 aimed squarely at college students. It is basically the same offering as Office 365 Home Premium, but it comes at a better overall price and only lets you install the software twice. You’ll also get the convenience of Office on Demand, which could come seriously in handy in university computer labs, which may not have the latest version of Office installed.

Frankly, Office 365 University looks like a killer deal. Microsoft says it will let students re-up on the $80-for-four-years offer a single time, which helps if they need extra time to get their Bachelor’s degree or go to grad school.

Office 2013

If you’d rather pay a large amount upfront and not have to subscribe to get your software, Microsoft also is offering Office 2013 Home Premium in three other versions. Think of these versions as a more traditional approach to Office. If you just want a single copy that can only be installed on one PC, this is your software.

Keep in mind, Office 2013 is not as cloud-connected as Office 365. You don’t get Office on Demand and your documents don’t save simultaneously to SkyDrive and your hard drive. You can, however, save your documents just to SkyDrive if you want.

Office 2013 Home & Student — $140

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote

Office 2013 Home & Student will be the overall least expensive offering in the new Office family because you get the most basic Office programs and simply pay $140 for the life of the product. It offers the bare bones package though.

Office 2013 Home & Business — $220

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook

Small businesses that want to approach Office from a more traditional perspective of buying a licence or two for those who need a new copy might want this version. Office 2013 Home & Business is targeted at smaller companies rather than medium-sized companies and enterprises.

Office 2013 Pro — $400

Programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access

If you’re a serious Office aficionado and need the full suite of Microsoft tools, Pro is your version. Unless, of course, you’d rather have the same programs and get extra goodies by subscribing to Office 365. Chew on this: Pro costs $400 and only lets you install on one device, while 365 Home Premium lets you install on five devices with more cloud features. If you use Office 2013 Pro for four years, only then do you make up your investment when you could have paid the same for four years of Office 365.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft isn’t shy to admit that paying $400 for Pro isn’t a good deal. “My understanding is that we don’t want people to buy Pro for $400 — we want people to subscribe to 365,” Fark told us.

How it runs

The final copy of Office 365 Home Premium runs quite similar to what we saw previously when testing Office 2013. This is the Office you’ve known (and maybe liked) for years, but it has a more compelling design and more features. One feature that really stuck out was PowerPoint’s new Presenter View, which lets you preview slides and other info on your PC’s screen while giving a presentation. (You can partially see Presenter View in the top photo.) Another feature is a new start screen that pops up when you start Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more that shows popular template options.

What makes the latest version of Office a bit different besides the cloud-connected features is that it’s also built with touch in mind. Microsoft wants you to use this software on its Windows 8 tablets like Surface as well as Windows 7 and 8 PCs. You can change the settings that optimize icons and options for touch. But exclusively using touch can be a recipe for frustration — I found it challenging to input lots of numbers or prepare a presentation. I’d much rather use these programs with a mouse and keyboard.

More business support coming

Next up, Microsoft will launch the latest version of Office 365 for businesses on Feb. 27. The company hasn’t divulged details on how it will differ from Office 365 Home Premium yet, but we suspect it will offer various group editing and collaboration features in the cloud. When we find out, we’ll let you know.

Check out more views of the new Office 365 and Office 2013 in the slides below.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Microsoft Office for iOS is coming early next year, and a new leak from Microsoft confirms that we’re creeping closer than ever to a release.

The French site Mac4ever spotted references to a few key Office for iOS applications on an official Microsoft support site. That site lists the applications Office Mobile for iPhone, Excel for iPad, and PowerPoint for iPad.

The appearance of these references doesn’t advance the story too much, but it indicates that we’re likely closer than ever to seeing Microsoft Office for iOS finally appearing early in 2013.

Microsoft’s rumored plan for Office on iOS and Android is shrewd but smart. Office on these devices should let users view documents in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for free. But if you want to edit the documents, you’ll need a subscription to Office 365, which will cost you or your organization at least $4 a month per user. Windows Phone users can edit documents for free.

See the photo below for the references made on Microsoft’s support site:

Microsoft Office 2013 is now available for purchase by business customers, but regular users will have to wait until the first quarter of 2013 to get their hands on a copy, Microsoft announced today.

Office 2013, as we’ve written previously, shows Microsoft updating one of its most important products with more style and support for more inputs, especially touch. The apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more — come with the feature set you’d expect, but Microsoft designed the software to work better across all kinds of devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and hybrid tablet/laptops. It also has new cloud features, such as saving to Microsoft SkyDrive by default instead of saving to your hard drive.

Today’s release specifically focuses on on-premise versions of Office 2013, Exchange Server 2013, Lync Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, Project 2013, and Visio 2013. They can be purchased through Microsoft Volume Licensing.

Consumers and companies without Microsoft Volume Licensing will get their hands on the software “through retail and online channels” in the first quarter of 2013. Versions of Office 2013 that are available through the cloud and related products for businesses will come later as well.

If you haven’t played around with Office 2013, you can do a relatively painless trial through Office 365 for enterprises.

Take a look at the slides below for more looks at Office 2013:

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

We’ve heard for a while that Microsoft is developing native Office 2013 apps for iOS and Android, and a Microsoft product manager seemingly confirmed, yet again, that these apps would arrive shortly.

Microsoft product manager Petr Bobek reportedly told Czech website IHNED that Microsoft’s native Office apps for iOS and Android would be available in March 2013.

However, Microsoft HQ would not confirm or deny if Bobek’s statement was accurate. A company spokesperson sent us the following carefully worded statement:

We have nothing to announce today about retail availability of the new Office. As we shared previously, Office Mobile will work across Windows Phones, Android phones and iOS, and we have nothing additional to announce.

Translation (as far as I can tell): Yes, we’re working on Office apps for iOS and Android. We’ll let you know when we’re ready.

Microsoft today announced pricing for its Office 2013 software suite, which consists of touch- and cloud-optimized versions of standbys such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

So how much is the modernized software package going to set you back? Well, that depends, because Microsoft is selling Office to consumers on a subscription basis.

People can choose to pay $99.99 a year for a single subscription that covers up to five users or devices, an extra 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage (on top of the free 7 GB of space), 60 minutes of Skype calls per month, and premium licenses that ensure households get as-they-happen software updates.

Office 365 Home Premium. Click to enlarge.

This Office 365 Home Premium package includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Publisher, and the other goodies mentioned above. Microsoft is hoping it can lure families into these annual subscription plans by touting the package as the end-all, be-all solution for the connected home.

“Subscriptions open a host of possibilities, and subscribing to Office 365 will be the best choice for many — especially families, people with multiple devices and small businesses,” the Office team said in a statement.

Folks can instead opt for the nonfrills, single person Office Home and Student 2013 package that costs $139.99. But this has a bunch of catches. With the one-time price option, you won’t get software updates, the additional SkyDrive space, those handy Skype calling minutes, or Outlook, Access, and Publisher. If you want Outlook, you’ll need the pricier Office Home and Business 2013 version, which costs $219.99. Microsoft also has an Office Professional 2013 edition, which tacks on Access and Publisher and goes for $399.99, according to The Verge.

Microsoft is also selling Office 2013 to small businesses on a subscription basis. Office 365 Small Business Premium costs $149.99 per user, per year and comes with all the Office apps, 25 GB Outlook mailboxes, video conferencing features, and premium app licenses.

A preview of Office 2013 was released in July.

Microsoft has opened its new Office Store, an app marketplace aimed at adding new capabilities to Office and Office 365 apps, the company announced today.

We suspected the Office Store was on its way due to a July blog post about implementing a new “cloud app model” for Office. Microsoft will incorporate the Office Store into the next versions of Office and SharePoint, but like the Windows 8 App Store, it is now in preview mode so companies and developers can get their apps ready for the full launch of Office 2013.

The idea of the Office Store is to add new functionality to Office apps like Word and Outlook. Product manager Vivek Narasimhan writes:

We know our users spend an incredible amount of time using the Microsoft Office suite – think of how much time you spend reading through email, writing reports, analysing data, preparing sales figures or sharing proposals with your team. We also know that many critical tools and many critical information sources live on the web or in applications outside of Office. We’ve built the store so you could integrate the very best of the web with the powerful features of Office and SharePoint.

A great example of this is Outlook 2013 (or outlook web access) connected to Exchange. If you are sent a part number or an address via email, you shouldn’t have to open another application to get more details. If you are sent an email from a contact, you should be able to see their LinkedIn details or their sales history right as you read the email. Even better, you should be able to interact with and take action on these other applications right from within the Office clients.

Microsoft thinks this is a big opportunity for developers because of the huge number of Office users around the world. Narasimhan writes:

With over a billion people using Microsoft Office the developer opportunity is huge. Whether the app is focused on content management, data visualization, financial management, project management, sales & marketing, HR, education, travel, social … (The list really does go on and on!) there are an incredible number of individuals or teams who are looking for solutions to meet those needs. If you take SharePoint as an example, we’ve made it real easy for users to search for and find apps that will make their sites work for them. This is an opportunity to reach out with tailored solutions for specific verticals from Manufacturing to Legal, or with enhanced tools from scheduling to collaboration, or with those apps that everyone wants from maps to weather.

Companies including LinkedIn, Twitter, and LegalZoom have already added apps to the store. We expect many more enterprise-minded developers to add apps in the next several months.

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We got some advance warning on Microsoft’s new Office 2013 and even had some hands-on time with the software. Here’s how you can get a preview version of your own.

Just go to the Microsoft landing page for the new software suite and click the big, green “Sign up” button. This will give you access to Office 365 Home Premium Preview, “a new service that gives you a full-featured version of Office.”

You’ll need to be running Windows 7 or better to use the suite. Using your Microsoft account (which is free to sign up for, if you don’t already have one), you can then download and install or re-install Office on your computer.

If you choose to stay signed in, you’ll be able to save any documents you create directly to the cloud via Microsoft’s SkyDrive.

Our own reviewer called the new Office “a modern, touch-friendly, and cloud-connected version” of Microsoft’s productivity and professional software suite. Truly, we’ve found the software to be remarkably slick and a joy to use so far.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the new interfaces and features in Microsoft Office 2013:

Image courtesy of Yuri Acrus, Shutterstock

After numerous rumors and leaks, Microsoft has finally unveiled Office 2013, a versatile version of the well-known suite that tentatively embraces the future.

I was able to get my hands on the software running on a Samsung-made Windows 8 tablet a few days ago and have been tinkering with it since. In many ways, Office 2013 reminds me of Windows 8, Microsoft’s upcoming OS that stresses versatility and works decently well whether you use it on a desktop, laptop, or tablet. Microsoft, sensing that Windows 8 won’t be a big hit initially (or at all) with enterprise, has mostly decided to keep the 2013 apps as regular desktop apps instead making them Metro apps. That way, the apps will behave more like previous versions of Office and make for easier multitasking on desktops.

All of the programs you’ve known for years — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and more — have been redesigned with an eye toward a fresh and modern look. While Office 2013 retains many elements we know from previous versions of the software, it has also been given a touch-focused infusion so people using Windows 8 on tablets can use it. The familiar ribbon interface that was introduced in Office 2007 is still around but has larger text and a way to easily minimize the ribbon if you want it hidden. (That can save screen space on your tablet.)

Many of the ways the apps have been tweaked make the life of the user easier. One big change is the inclusion of a helpful start screen (see above) that pops up when you start Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more that shows popular template options to start a new document. Another is the constant connection to the cloud via Office 365 and Microsoft SkyDrive cloud storage. Ideally, whenever you are connected to the Web, Microsoft’s apps will be connected to your entire organization and a personal account that can be accessed no matter what device you’re using. Files are saved by default to your SkyDrive account for access anywhere, but you can save files locally, too.

After using many of the programs on a tablet, I can safely say that I’d much rather use these programs with a mouse and keyboard than relying on my hands. Using Word for typing a document was fine, but for almost any other program that needs constant formatting changes — Excel, PowerPoint, etc. — using touch can be tough and frustrating. Inputting a ton of numbers into Excel was especially agitating. The icons at the top of the screen that make up the “Quick Access Toolbar”, such as New, Open, Save, Undo, or Redo, are awfully small and difficult to tap with large fingers.

But using the software with a keyboard and mouse was a different story. With a mouse and keyboard setup either on a desktop or connected to a tablet (as you can see in the photo above), the software works quite well. Everything I did was responsive and snappy. The design is clean and the ribbon interface works just as a well as it does in Office 2010.

If I was managing a large enterprise that uses 2010, I’m not sure 2013 would be enough to convince me to upgrade. However, if your company is still using 2003 or 2007, Office 2013 could be a worthy step up that will help get your company ready for tablet and hybrid computing. The software will be especially relevant to companies considering adopting Windows 8 for tablets.

Office 2013 only works for Windows 7 or Windows 8, so if you’re still using XP or Vista, you’re out of luck. Microsoft has not yet disclosed pricing or expected availability for Office 2013, but if it reveals that information at its Office event today in San Francisco, we will update this post.

Check out the slides below to see more screens of Office 2013.

Microsoft has finally announced Office 2013, a modern, touch-friendly, and cloud-connected version of its widely used productivity suite.

The next 12 months will bring major changes for Microsoft, which will release a new version of Office, its Windows 8 operating system, Windows Phone 8 for smartphones, Xbox 360′s ambitious SmartGlass software, an updated Windows Azure with IaaS support that will take on Amazon Web Services, and more. But today is all about Office 2013.

And Office 2013 is all about the cloud. “Your modern office thinks cloud first,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at a press conference in San Francisco today. “We use cloud to help you remember what you were doing and where you were.”

“We are transitioning the office business as a cloud business,” added Kirk Koenigsbauer, Microsoft’s corporate vice president, who took the stage shortly after Ballmer.

The modern office also includes increased support for Windows 8 and integration with social enterprise networking systems like Yammer, which Microsoft acquired this June. “Yammer will accelerate our position in the social networking space,” Koenigsbauer said of the $1.2 billion acquisition.

All of the programs you’ve known for years — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more — have been reimagined by Microsoft in a way to move the software forward without changing it enough to be alienating. It will work across desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones; like Windows 8, it is trying to be more versatile in how it can be used than ever before.

Koenigsbauer announced an update to Microsoft SharePoint to include more social and collaborative features, such as contact information aggregated from your social feeds and recommendations of documents to read and share based on your interests. For the first time, a Skype service will be integrated into Office to start video calls in seconds.

Microsoft claims that the new version of Office was made with Windows 8 in mind, but most of the new apps are disappointingly not built with the company’s full-screen Metro design. Only OneNote and Lync have been built as Metro-style apps, while all of the other apps are meant to be used on the standard Windows desktop. However, all of the apps have been built with touch in mind, so the programs can work well with tablets running Windows 8, such as Microsoft’s Surface.

One of the more notable changes is that many apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, have a handy start screen that shows popular template options. Another big change is the ability to save documents directly to your SkyDrive folder in the cloud as a default — that way your docs are stored in the cloud and accessible across several devices tied to SkyDrive. It’s also cloud-connected with features from Office 365.

SkyDrive is fundamental to the new release as it’s where Microsoft will be storing all your documents (photos, videos, images and more) in the cloud.

Check out our full hands-on impression of Office 2013 to get a better idea of more software changes.

Microsoft has not revealed when it will be releasing this new version of Office, but we expect it to be ready to go for the release of Windows 8 in late October. Pricing details for Office 2013 were also not disclosed.

Christina Farr contributed additional reporting to this story.

Take a look at the slides below for more looks at Office 2013: