CES 2012: Microsoft Office 15 Beta Coming Out in January [Microsoft Reportedly Ready to Offer a Sneak Peak at Office 15 at CES, Metro UI Tablet-Friendliness Included]

Posted on TFTS by Chris Smith on Wednesday, 23. November 2011 under: Computers & Computing

With more than a month to go until the most important electronics show of the year kicks off in Las Vegas there’s already talk about certain products that are about to be unveiled in early 2012. Microsoft’s upcoming Office suite, currently dubbed as Office 15, is expected to be demoed at CES, with the company ready to offer a beta 1 milestone version in late January.

While we don’t have any Office 15 screenshots to show you right now, except for the leaked Outlook interface above, we hear that Microsoft’s new Office Suite will be quite a revolutionary product as the company is ready to make it a lot more touch- and tablet-friendly.

Office 15 will be ready for regular computer use, but it will also play nice with future Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone smatphones considering that it will sport the same Metro UI found on such devices. What’s Metro UI? WinRumors reminds us:

Microsoft’s Metro design language is an internal code name for a typography-based design languages created and used by the company. Microsoft originally started using Metro in Media Center and showcased a full version in the company’s Zune products. Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, also features the Metro look and feel throughout. Microsoft has started to use the Metro style UI on more of its web properties to produce a clean, fast and simple look.

Steve Ballmer already confirmed Microsoft is working on a Metro-based Office suite, and we certainly expect the company to fully demo the new Office 15 version at CES, right alongside more Windows 8 footage. 2012 may be a great year for Microsoft as the company will launch its next major Windows update, not to mention that the first Windows 8 tablets will be launched.

What would you like to see in a Metro-based, touch-friendly Office suite next year?

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