Microsoft to release touch-first preview of Office for Windows 10 in February

Tomorrow is a huge day for Microsoft, for the second time the company will officially reveal Windows 10. However, the company is also planning to talk about how it will provide better software and services that are more deeply integrated into the operating system and how it will deliver more features than on software and services it is offering on iOS and Android.

One of this key integration is Office. At the press event scheduled for January 21, we’re expecting Microsoft to unveil the touch-friendly version of Office that the company has been building to work across all form factor devices.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft to stream live Windows 10 January 21 press event

The suite is part of Microsoft’s Office “Gemini”, which was previously announced will debut with Windows 10 when it releases later this fall. They will be universal apps sharing the core code common to Windows 10 and the version of the operating system for mobile devices.

Although, nothing is official, it’s expected that an Office 365 subscription will be required to gain access to all the features for the touch-first version of the most popular suite of apps in the world, as the same is true for Office on Android and iOS.

According to sources familiar to the plan, tell ZDNet, that Microsoft is planning to release a preview version of Office optimized for touch on Windows sometime in February. However, we don’t know if the release date will fall in the same day we’re expecting to get the first public release of Windows 10 for mobile devices.

Other things to expect during the event…

As I previously mentioned on my previous post on what to expect during the January 21 Microsoft’s press event, Cortana is one of these services the software maker will focus on making it more integrated with Windows 10.

Also Microsoft is likely to highlight gaming services that span to PCs and new peripherals such as “helmet”, which is the company alternative to Oculus Rift 3D gaming headset owned by Facebook.

Source ZDNet