Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is said to be preparing a productivity app suite similar to Microsoft Office. The e-commerce giant could launch its own versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft PowerPoint in the near future, suggests a report from The Information.
Amazon’s cloud computing business Amazon Web Services is rumored to be building the suite of applications in a bid to challenge Microsoft Office and Google G Suite.
As part of its efforts to launch its own office suite of applications, servers, and services, Amazon Web Services has been upgrading “its WorkMail email-calendar app and its WorkDocs file storage-collaboration app,” The Information reported citing two people familiar with the company’s plans. One person told the publication that Amazon Web Services plans to bundle these apps with Chime video conferencing apps into a new productivity app suite that “will compete with Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365.”
Amazon Web Services is engaged in managing and selling cloud computing services to companies around the world. AWS, one of the most profitable units of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), offers a suite of cloud services from 16 geographical regions across the world. The company offers more than 70 services including networking, application services, database, storage, analytics as well as the Internet of Things (IoT) apps to its customers.
Amazon has yet to confirm rumors about the expected office suite of applications.
Amazon has been expanding into a technology behemoth. We believe that the e-commerce giant could announce regarding its own version of Microsoft Office sometime this year, possibly in the third quarter.
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is currently leading the productivity suite market. Microsoft Office, also known as MS Office includes Word, PowerPoint, Access, Excel, Outlook and OneNote. It was first introduced by Bill Gates in August 1988.
MS Office’s most widely used version, the desktop version, is available on computers running the Windows and macOS operating systems. The current desktop version, Office 2016 for Windows and macOS, was released in 2015.
In addition, Microsoft offers Office Mobile, a free-to-use version of Office applications for mobile devices. The software giant also released Office Online, a web-based version of Office applications, which is included as part of a Hotmail or Outlook account.
Meanwhile, shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) closed down 0.97% on Monday. However, the stock is up around 33% so far this year.
