Microsoft on July 17, 2012 unveiled a new version of its Office suite tailored for tablets and other touch screen devices, in the company's largest-ever overhaul of the workspace software it relies on for much of its profit. The revamped Office takes advantage of Cloud computing and is designed for use with the Windows 8 operating system, Windows Phone 8, and the updated Xbox. It makes use of cloud computing by storing documents and settings on the Internet by default, and is compatible with touch screens widely used in tablets. It also incorporates Skype, the video-calling service Microsoft bought for $8.5 billion in 2011. While the previous vesions of Office uses PC's hard drives for saving documents, the new Office uses Microsoft's online "Skydrive" or "Sharepoint" service for default storage. The new Office incorporates social networks which allows you to view multiple email accounts, get facebook updates etc in Outlook itself. Documents can be easily shared on facebook or published in blogs in the new Office. The company is planning to sell the product through online subscription service. Office is Microsoft's single-biggest profit driver. The last update of the office was done on 2010 when it introduced the online versions for the first time. The full version of Office 15 is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2013. However it is unclear whether Microsoft have plans to launch versions of Office compatible with Apple's iPad or tablets running Google's Android platform.
