Maybe it's the continued, or at least the assumed continued popularity of Netbooks and more importantly the fact of the use of Web-enabled devices for business purposes. Maybe it's Google's entry into the OS market with Chrome, as well as its and Sun's head start in the Web apps business. Maybe its just another sign of Microsoft's intent to stake a major claim to a cloud computing future. Whatever it is, the folks over in Redmond are in the process of shifting some well-established gears regarding cash cow Microsoft Office.

As part of an otherwise standard PR announcement at the Worldwide Partner Conference touting the changes being built into Microsoft Office 2010, due out next June, it was also noted that Web editions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote, will be available to anyone with a Windows LIVE account. Of course, you can also buy the full suite if you really want to. It's hard to say how many personal users will actually do that since as usual, when faced with an Office update, the current version continues to work fine. Corporate users, now that is a different story since many of these will upgrade to the full version just as a matter of course, yet they will have access to Web versions of tools as well. But we are talking vital work tools like spreadsheets, word processing and good old .ppt here. Again, although accepting the rise of hardware with lessened processing power, who in their right mind would want to store work docs in an anonymous Microsoft data center, and only have access to them via the Internet? Pretty much nobody who could avoid it. So, as part of a full install, users can choose to have Microsoft host data or they can keep it on their own servers, and even have access to hybrids configurations. Sounds like an okay deal for companies willing to pay for it, others comfortable with Web storage of their docs and casual users who want to do a spell check I suppose. Either way the reality is that Microsoft is willing to leverage a prominent tool in its arsenal to get at the markets growing in the clouds down the road. So, is the competition worried? Google was first to market and doubtless knew this challenge was coming, so apparently not. According to a statement released on Monday, and making the rounds online

"We welcome Microsoft's movement to the cloud," continuing,

"Choice is good for users, and their direction further validates

that the future of computing is in the cloud."

There you have it. A mainstream war for the clouds is on, with the included

joint agenga of the combatants as a whole of instilling a sense of confidence in the consumer at-large that virtual storage is safe and the place your data should be. I don't know about the later point, but barring compatibility issues between documents and the continued layering of accessible and cheap Wi-Fi networks at every turn, Microsoft may have a dog in the fight for the clouds at least. Like I said, Office 2010 is scheduled for a June 2010 release with Web versions of some of its components compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple's Safari. Hopefully there will also be no major hurdles accessing these from popular handhelds.