Microsoft released on Tuesday, a full Web version of its Office 2010 suite for businesses, including a product aimed at combating the presence of Google's online services for SMEs. Office suite, which includes office software (spreadsheet, PowerPoint, Word processing ...) is one of the best-selling software - and most profitable - Microsoft.
For an amount of 5.25 to 22.75 euros per month per user, Microsoft offers companies subscribe to different offers, including more or less dematerialized services and software. The company claims that this system will enable companies to achieve economies of subtantielles maintenance costs.
The division "business" of the software giant, whose main income comes from the Office suite, reported $ 5.27 billion (3.7 billion euros) in revenue to Microsoft in the last quarter results exceed by more than $ 300 million forecast.
But in this very lucrative industry, Microsoft has seen competition from Google Apps and its service business, which offers similar tools (online office, email ...) for 50 dollars (35 euros) per year per user. Intended in particular for SMEs, this offer - why Google does not share the number of paying users - is seen by Microsoft as a direct competition to one of its flagship products.
