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Microsoft exec teases that Office 365 will get new apps, rapid-fire updates
Microsoft would really, really like us to drop our stand-alone copies of Office in favor of Office 365 subscriptions. Really. Division president Kurt DelBene prefers to lure us in with the carrot rather than the stick, however, and just hinted at the company's TechForum that there will likely be a "rapid cadence" of upgrades to keep productivity fans happy. There's even the prospect of new apps coming out for subscribers. While that's tempting, DelBene also wants to allay fears that we'll be dragged kicking and screaming into the company's recurring revenue model. Microsoft will keep making a buy-once-use-forever edition of Office "as long as that demand exists," the exec says. He hasn't elaborated on where that threshold rests, but it's safe to presume that we'll be voting with our wallets for a good while.
Microsoft names three new division presidents following recent departures
As you may have noticed, Microsoft has seen a few pretty significant executive shakeups as of late, with Robbie Bach and J Allard announcing their departures back in May, and Steven Elop leaving just last month to take the top job at Nokia. Now Microsoft has officially filled in some of those gaps, naming Kurt DelBene as president of its Microsoft Office Division, and Andy Lees and Don Mattrick as presidents of its Mobile Communications Business and Interactive Entertainment Business, respectively -- Windows Phone and Xbox, in other words. All three divisions are actually new (at least in name), but DelBene is effectively succeeding Elop, who led Microsoft's Business Division, while Mattrick and Lees are more or less splitting up Robbie Bach's former duties as head of the now dissolved Entertainment and Devices division. Head on past the break for the complete press release.
