Microsoft has become completely mum on what it's organizing for your Workplace Mobile 2010 release and when that item might go live. (In fact, I tried asking again this week to no avail.)But blogger Stephen Chapman — formerly of UXEvangelist and now Microsoft Kitchen fame — has unearthed a Microsoft presentation from August 2009 about “Workplace Cellular 7″ that provides new hints.Office Cellular is a mini version of Microsoft Workplace that is tailored to run on Windows Mobile phones. It truly is not the same as Office Web Apps (even though Workplace Web Apps also are going to be able to run on unspecified phones from Microsoft and other vendors). Microsoft hasn;t released a new version of Workplace Mobile since 2007. Company officials said there is a new version in the works but have declined repeatedly to say when that version will go to beta testers or be released in final form.The most recent version of Workplace Mobile is Version 6.1. It includes cellular versions of Word,
Microsoft Office 2007 Key, Excel and PowerPoint. (Update: And a rudimentary version of OneNote that syncs with OneNote on the desktop, as a Talkback poster noted.)According to a mock-up of Workplace Mobile 2010 which Chapman is featuring on his site (and which I;ve embedded in this post, above), Microsoft is organizing to include cellular versions of its OneNote note-taking app and its SharePoint collaboration products to the next Workplace Mobile suite. I;d think the SharePoint Mobile mentioned on Chapman;s site could provide users access to SharePoint Server 2010;s enterprise social networking, content management and other collaborative tools. The slide indicates that Office Mobile 2010 will be customized to work on Windows Mobile 7,
Office 2007 Standard Key, the version of Microsoft;s cellular OS expected to be available by the end of 2010.If Microsoft follows through with this plan,
Office 2010 Activation, that will help the company — at least to some degree — differentiate Workplace Mobile from Office Web Apps. Office Web Apps, Microsoft;s forthcoming Web-ified suite of productivity apps,
Windows 7 Professional Product Key, includes Word,
Windows 7 Enterprise Key, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote (but not SharePoint). Office Mobile is currently preloaded on a number of Windows Mobile phones by the carriers. It also is a natural for Microsoft;s just-launched Windows Marketplace for Cellular app store.Microsoft announced earlier this week that the company is arranging to field a number of new distribution vehicles for Office 2010, including an “Workplace Starter” version that replaces Microsoft;s Works item; a Item Key Card for unlocking and/or upgrading to versions of Workplace 2010 that come preloaded on new PCs; and a streaming/virtualized Click-to-Run offering.Workplace 2010 should be launching in May/June 2010, Microsoft officials told the company;s reseller partners earlier this year.