The announcement was made at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles. Chris Capossela, senior vice president of the Microsoft Business Division, said Office Web will allow users to employ lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote to create, edit and collaborate with Office documents through a Web browser.

He added that this is part of the company's "software plus services" approach for all its technology, and users will now be able to have a "consistent Office experience" whether they are using desktop applications or a Web browser on a desktop computer or a Windows Mobile smartphone.

'Seamless, Synchronized Experience'

Capossela pointed out that Microsoft has been developing "cloud -based services for more than 10 years," including Hosted Exchange, Outlook Web Access, Live Meeting, and Microsoft Online. Announced earlier in 2008, Microsoft Online allows businesses to access Exchange and SharePoint over the Web.

This increasing emphasis on applications that have online components and functionality reflects the fact that desktop apps are only one of the ways users employ applications these days, with an increasing demand to access and use the same applications and documents on a desktop computer or a mobile device.

"Our customers don't use one device," Capossela said, "but rather several." He added that they want "a seamless, synchronized experience across those devices to help them work smarter, faster and better." The company indicated that Office Web will work on Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox, and will utilize HTML, AJAX and Microsoft's Silverlight technology.

Office Web applications will be made available to consumers through Office Live, which has both advertising- and subscription-based versions. Office Web apps will be made available to business users through a hosted subscription service and volume-licensing agreements. Pricing details were not released.

'Saw This Coming'

The apps will be made available at the end of next year, when the new Office 14 is released. A technology preview is being planned for the end of this year.

Kyle McNabb, an analyst at industry research firm Forrester Research, said he wasn't surprised by Microsoft's announcement. Given the continued development of online applications from Google, Adobe and others, he said, "you kind of saw this coming."

He predicted that some versions of Office Web will be available free to consumers and supported by ads, although the subscription model will probably remain for small to large organizations.

McNabb also said that Microsoft, realizing it still has a dominant position on the desktop, will be concentrating, at least for the near term, on collaborative functionality for Office Web.