TechGazing

Almost a month after it was officially “revealed,” MS Office 2010, the latest version of Microsoft’s bestselling office suite is now available in retail stores in India. The prices of the suite have also become public - there are two versions of the suite, with the Office Home and Student version being priced at Rs. 4999, while the Office Home and Business retails for Rs. 10,999. Microsoft claims that the beta version of the suite attracted almost 1.3 million downloads in India, but then ah, that one was free.

While we are not doubting just how good MS Office 2010 is - we have used the beta and really think that it is the most powerful office suite we have ever seen in terms of features - those price tags might just stop some Indian consumers from buying it. Legally, that is.

A pretty reliable source (and we have many of those, believe you us), has informed us that Microsoft will be releasing the latest version of its bestselling office suite, MS Office 2010, in India on Thursday, May 13. We have no details of pricing, but we have been assured that the price tag of the office suite will surprise us. We just hope it is one of those good surprises, really.

The MSOffice 2010 suite will contain an improved interface and greater integration with the cloud (read “you will be able to save and edit work on the Web”) and cellphones. Of course, it will feature new versions of some of the most popular software applications in the world such as MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint. Although the office suite has easily been one of the most popular in the world, it has been facing a number of challenges of late, especially from the likes of free office suites like OpenOffice.org and IBM’s Lotus Symphony. Will this version of MS Office batter the opposition into submission? Ah, we will find that out on Thursday, we are sure.

Watch this space for a review, folks.