Microsoft expected to launch Office 365 on June 28

Microsoft is expected to launch Office 365, a cloud version of Office, on June 28.

The company today invited journalists to a June 28 event in New York to hear about Office 365. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer will speak at the event at Skylight Soho, the same studio space where Microsoft launched Windows 7 in 2009.

While the invitation did not specifically say Office 365 would launch on that date, Ballmer has said the new subscription service would start selling in June.

Office 365 combines Office Web Apps, lightweight online versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, with unified communications software Lync and collaboration software SharePoint.

Instead of selling the software in boxes, the Office 365 service will be sold as an online monthly subscription for $72 per year.

The software and data will be stored in Microsoft's data centers Microsoft and businesses will access it via the Internet. Microsoft is pitching it to small businesses that may not want to manage their own servers for email and other software.

A more expensive subscription will include desktop versions of Office 2010 for businesses that want the full versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, although Microsoft has not announced pricing for the premium version yet.

The name Office 365 will replace the service called Business Productivity Online Services, or BPOS.

Update 4:48 p.m.:

Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jon Roskill tweeted that June 28 is the launch date for Office 365 on Friday. Roskill's tweet said, "June 28th is the date for General Availability of Office 365! > 100,000 real customers on beta...Partners, are you ready???"

June 28th is the date for General Availability of Office 365! > 100,000 real customers on beta...Partners, are you ready???less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyJon Roskill
Jon_Roskill

Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas Kate Beckinsale Shiri Appleby Kelly Hu