Office 2010 desktop applications + Windows Live SkyDrive. By my count, customers have several ways in which they can interact with both the Office Web Apps and the underlying cloud storage systems they utilize. The Office Web Apps strategy is also just as disjointed as before. Office Web Apps provides a lot Office functionality in the browser.
My only worry is that it is doing so too tentatively. That strategy made sense years ago, but with Office Web Apps, Microsoft is finally making its first steps into Google Docs territory. Office Web Apps is Microsoft's first real push into this market, since its disjointed Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business products neatly sidestepped the issue of working in the web and simply assumed that everyone would use PC-based versions of the various Office applications in tandem with live services.
Surely, I've thought, there's got to be a better way. This market has been dominated for too long by an unworthy entry, Google Docs, which to mind is dumbing down the user base by lowering expectations of what is possible on the web. As a long-time proponent of what is now called cloud computing, I've been eagerly awaiting Microsoft's entry into the cloud-based office productivity market.
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