Another week, another big Microsoft announcement.

The tech behemoth has scheduled a press event for 3 p.m. ET on Monday featuring CEO Steve Ballmer. The event will be live-streamed here. A media alert announcing the event was scant on details. However, the smart money is on an Office 15 announcement. The 15th version of Microsoft’s venerable suite of products will dovetail the fall release of Windows 8. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been quietly countering Google’s threat to the franchise by boosting commissions to resellers and cutting Office 365’s prices 20% in March to large companies and universities, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Apparently learning a trick from longtime rival Apple, Microsoft scheduled mysterious press events last month designed to wring maximum press coverage. Like Apple, Microsoft has tried to keep the content of the announcements secret, though details inevitably leak out.

 

 

Posted by Janine E. Mooney, Editor

July 16, 2012