Microsoft has revealed that the release of Microsoft Office 2010, which is slated for the first half of next year, will include free web versions of Excel, PowerPoint, Office and Notepad. Customers will be able to store their documents on Microsoft's SkyDrive service, which is accessible via Office Web.

In addition, the company has reduced the number of versions from eight to just five. "We wanted to make it easier for people to figure out which version of Office is right for them," explained Chris Capossela, senior VP for Microsoft's business unit.

As it is, businesses can choose from Office Standard and Office Professional Plus, where the latter includes software like Sharepoint and Infopath, among other enterprise features. Consumers will be given the choice between Office Home, Student, Business and Office Professional. Office Home and Business includes Outlook while Office Pro "has just about everything."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek

Related Articles:
New features in Office 2010 nothing to write home about
Forrester: Microsoft Office in no danger from competition
Microsoft Groove to get a new name in Office 2010