Office 365 upgraded; availability extended to more countries

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 30 November 2011 15:49

The first major update for Microsoft's Office 365 includes more than 30 changes, including improved support for Windows Phone and Mac OS X.

The first major update to Microsoft Office 365 has been announced, along with the availability of the service in 22 more countries including Indonesia, South Africa and Taiwan.

Changes to the cloud service include support for Lync for Mac (instant messaging, presence and videoconferencing), SharePoint Online support for Windows Phone 7.5, and connectivity services between SharePoint Online and line-of-business applications such as SAP.

The SkyDrive cloud storage service has also been improved with one-click sharing of Office documents, support for contacts in Facebook and LinkedIn, and the ability to drag and drop multiple files in Mac and Windows browsers.

"We are seeing really positive momentum for Office 365. Customers are adopting Office 365 eight times faster than our previous service, and the solution is on track to become one of our fastest-growing offers in Microsoft history," said Kurt DelBene, president of Microsoft's Office division. "We are also seeing great traction with small businesses, with more than 90 percent of our early Office 365 customers coming from small businesses."

Microsoft also claims that 41 of the Interbrand Top 100 are using Office 365.