Microsoft’s Office 2016 desktop suite coming later this year

MS Office 2016

Microsoft made some big announcements earlier this week at the Windows 10 event, but there wasn’t much talk about its productivity suite.

At the Windows 10 preview, it spoke about the lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on tablets and phones running Windows 10. They will also be available to download from the Windows Store for other Windows 10 devices. “But they’re really just lightweight versions of the familiar core Office applications and they won’t have all of the functionality of the traditional desktop versions, points out The Register.

In a blog post, the company later announced that it is also working on full Office suite. Following the usual nomenclature, it will be called Office 2016.

The blog post, written by Julia White, General Manager for the Office Product Management team, says, “We are hard at work on the next release of the Office desktop suite that will be called Office 2016. (Unexpected, I know!) We will have more to share on Office 2016 in the coming months, but this suite will remain the comprehensive Office experience you’re long familiar with, best suited for a PC with keyboard and mouse. We have compelling new experiences coming as part of this Office suite–stay tuned to the Office Blog for more details. We expect to make Office 2016 generally available in the second half of 2015.”

So, she hasn’t really disclosed how it will be different from the previous iteration. However, she does hint that it will be “best suited for a PC with keyboard and mouse.”

There is no word on the pricing for Office 2016. On asking, the company didn’t disclose the price if a user downloads them from the Windows Store, or if the Office 365 subscription would be required for full document editing experience, according to the report by The Register.

“A Microsoft spokesperson did say, however, that commercial and consumer Office 365 subscribers would be able to upgrade to the new Mac version at no additional cost, and that a perpetual-license version of Office for Mac would be available in the same timeframe,” adds the report.

Though there is no word on the exact launch, the new suite is expected to be available in the second half of 2015.