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We’ve been hearing (and even seeing a leaked build) of Windows Blue, as well as hearing about Windows Phone Blue and Windows Server Blue. But what about the next version of Office, Microsoft’s productivity suite?
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According to a new report, Microsoft has codenamed the next wave of Office releases as “Gemini” rather than Office Blue. The first release wave of Office Gemini will be around the same time as Windows Blue and could feature a modern/metro version of your favorite Office apps.
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“But unlike its Windows sibling, Office is refocusing itself from being an organization that builds and sells Windows apps, to one that builds apps and services that run on multiple, heterogeneous platforms,” the report adds.
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Similar to Office Web Apps (and Office 365 subscription model being the center of the Gemini strategy), Office will run on multiple platforms. So if you were expecting the subscription model to go away, you will be sadly disappointed. Microsoft is planning on a rapid release strategy rather than longer development cycles.
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OneNote and Lync are two Office 2013/365 apps that are modern/metro thusfar, so would it make sense to have the same for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc? Would the same functionality that we see in the Office 2013 Win32 apps be the same on the modern/metro versions as well? Looks like we will have to wait and see. More on this as it develops.
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