Microsoft launches Office XP in India

NEW DELHI, MAY 31. The global software major Microsoft Corporation today announced the launch of its next generation of office suite in India, Office XP, with features such as speech and handwriting recognition for enhanced personal computer (PC) interaction.

"Office XP is at the core of Microsoft's .Net vision redefining the end user computing experience. With this release, the company aims to give users the feature sets and functionalities of office as per their requirements," the Microsoft India Managing Director, Mr. Rajiv Kaul, told reporters here.

Office XP, which is an upgrade to Office 2000 launched by Microsoft in May 1999, has new collaboration features such as Sharepoint team services and unified e-mail for improving the efficiency of virtual teams.

The estimated retail price of the stand version of Office XP is pegged at Rs. 20,500.

Office XP would immediately be made available through Microsoft's retail channel, licensing programmes and through original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Mr. Kaul said.

Elaborating on the feature of the new product, he said Office XP would aim at increasing end-user productivity through features such as smart tags and task panels to simplify and automate work process within all office applications.

"Office XP speech recognition technology and handwriting support have also been incorporated to enhance user interaction," Mr. Kaul said. Office XP would also integrate other products and services from Microsoft including Exchange 2000, MSN messenger and Hotmail.

"The product also includes new document reviewing, sharing and management features and a new tool - Sharepoint team services - that enables collaboration," Mr. Kaul said, adding "key features for improving team productivity include document review and workflow process improvements, integration with Sharepoint team services, Hotmail and MSN instant messenger integration," Mr. Kaul added.

The product is available in four flavours - Office XP standard, Office XP professional, Office XP developer and Office XP small business edition.

Each of these would include a combination of products including Word 2002, Excel 2002, Powerpoint 2002, Outlook 2002, Access 2002, Frontpage 2002 and Publisher 2002.The standard and professional version of the product are available immediately throughout the country.Office XP small business would be available through select OEMs.

System requirements for all versions of Office XP are Pentium III processor and 128 MB of RAM.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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