Microsoft India showcased a wide range of consumer services targeted at the next 25 million new Indian users. Increasingly consumers are looking to do more with their devices and relying more on the services that power these devices. Today Microsoft announced the availability of Office 365 Personal for individual users, further enriching its services offerings for Indian consumers. Office 365 Personal allows users to connect up to two home devices to the service.
According to Chakrapani Gollapali, Country General Manager, Consumer Channels Group, “Today’s consumers are seeking a more optimized experience across their phone, tablet and PC and the combined power of Microsoft devices and services provides the best experience they can have today across all these. We at Microsoft are working hard to deliver unmatched immersive experiences to the next 25 million consumers, powered by our first and third-party devices and our capabilities in the consumer cloud space.”
Commenting on the launch of Office 365 Personal, Ram Kumar Pichai, General Manager, Microsoft Office Division said, “More and more consumers today are looking for a home productivity suite which will allow them to move between devices and have constant access to important documents online. Office 365 Personal will address the needs of all these consumers.”
Office 365 is the suite of world-leading productivity products from Microsoft, offered as a cloud service. Since launch it has been the fastest growing product in Microsoft history and has become a >2 billion dollar business within a short span of time. Office 365 Personal is meant for the individual consumer who would like to carry the best productivity experience with PowerPoint, Excel, One Note and more on a device of his choice. The software allows for up to two devices to be connected to the service. Office 365 Personal is available for sale beginning this week at all major retail outlets such as Croma, Reliance Digital and Jumbo Electronics as well as online on the Microsoft Store.
Priced at Rs 330 a month or Rs 3299 a year, the Office 365 Personal subscription service provides access to the Office applications.
In addition to Office 365 Personal, Microsoft showcased a range of powerful new functionalities in its existing services:
- Consumers using Bing can now use Venue Maps to easily navigate malls across the country. The service displays interior and exterior maps as a layer on top of Bing Maps, complete with store names and precise location data. Venue map data is provided from the Nokia Maps application as well as via Bing searches for public information such as maps which a mall may place on its website. Currently Bing Venue Maps allows consumers to search 120 malls and 3 airports (Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi) across the country. Several extra features have also been added to Bing Search on Windows phones – consumers searching for local destinations on their Windows phones will automatically be provided with directions on how to reach that destination, with an option for audio drive directions.
- Skype group video calling is now available for free on Xbox One, Windows desktop and Mac. Additionally in the future, Skype will deliver group video calling for free across all platforms for the first time ever. Group video calling enables so many important shared experiences, again an example of how consumers today want more from their device.
- Internet Explorer’s 3D FishGL is a colorful, nautical-themed WebGL graphics benchmark that’s touch-friendly, interactive, and engaging. Part of Internet Explorer’s Rethink initiative which aims to create entirely new web experiences for consumers that are fast and beautiful and perfect for touch and never thought to be possible on the web. 3D FishGL inspires web developers to offer a rich 3D browsing experience to consumers. It can be fun for all ages and works so perfectly with touch that even a five-year old could play around with it and have fun.
Millions of consumers across India today use Microsoft services across their Windows, Apple and Android phones, tablets and PCs. With today’s announcement, Microsoft hopes to add more value to consumers and what they do with their devices.
