Will Office 15 feature a brand new app?

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 23 Aug 2010 at 11:00

Details have emerged of the next version of Microsoft’s Office suite and a potential new app.

Screenshots of early builds of Office 15 have been leaked to a Russian website.

The leaked code is being treated seriously by Microsoft watchers as the site has proved accurate with leaks and revelations about previous releases from the Redmond giant.

Details remain sketchy at this early stage, but it looks likely that Office 15 will include a new application, although quite what it is remains open to speculation.

The leaked screenshots suggest the next version will include something called “Microsoft Limestone Integration Application", or “Microsoft Lime”, which is rumoured to be a new application.

According to ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley, Lime could merely be a new user interface for the suite, although she acknowledges that others believe it could be a new app based on Excel, after a former Microsoft intern posted about the project on LinkedIn.

According to Foley, this suggests the new application could be a business intelligence program or a data visualisation tool.

Microsoft is also reportedly planning to integrate a Key Management Service (KMS) activator which should make it easier for corporate customers to activate large numbers of copies across their organisation.

Microsoft is giving nothing away at this stage, but the software is expected to be released in 2013 or 2014.