Last week, Microsoft and Nokia announced a partnership that will bring native Office support to Symbian handsets. Considering the terrific third-party options currently available for S60 however, it was a bit hard to get excited to be honest. We would hope Microsoft has some amazing new features it will be adding to Symbian’s Office support, but all things considered… Meh. This past week however, a mobile-related tidbit has us truly excited about the future of Office. Microsoft has confirmed that its Office Web Applications will support mobile devices:
Yes, mobile browsers will be supported for Office Web applications. We are still in early phases of development and will share additional details around specific browsers and functionality at a later date.
Boom. While this initial confirmation is lacking in terms of details, the very fact that mobile browsers will be supported by Office Web Apps is huge news. Google Docs currently offers limited mobile browser support — and it’s only usable on a few platforms — but functionality is limited at best. In short, a solid showing from the Ballmer Bunch could easily make us forget all about Google’s offering. Microsoft, the reigning king of the productivity suite, is seemingly attacking the Web app space with guns blazing and we can’t wait to see what Redmond comes up; especially where mobile Web support is concerned.
