Microsoft eyes 25 mn users in India for cloud services

Tech giant Microsoft today said it will offer its Office 365 Personal to allow access to applications like Word, Excel and Powerpoint to consumers in India at Rs 330 a month.
The cloud-based Office 365 Personal is an affordable subscription option, which gives access to Office applications for Windows/Mac and the ability to install and use the Mac and mobile versions of the office suite on a tablet (including the iPad) and a smartphone for Rs 3,299 a year.
In the next 12 months, Microsoft is targeting to garner 25 million new Indian users for cloud services (Office 365 Personal, Bing, Skype and OneDrive) of which a big chunk is expected to come from smartphones.

"Increasingly consumers are looking to do more with their devices and relying more on the services that power these devices. Today's consumers are seeking a more optimised experience across their phone, tablet and PC and the combined power of Microsoft devices and services provides the best experience they can have today across all these," Microsoft Country General Manager, Consumer Channels Group Chakrapani Gollapali told reporters here.
Microsoft is working hard to deliver immersive experiences to the next 25 million consumers, powered by first and third-party devices and capabilities in the consumer cloud space, he added.
Since launch, Office 365 has been the fastest growing product in Microsoft history and has become a over 2 billion dollar business within a short span of time.

Office 365 Personal is meant for the individual consumer, offering up to two devices to be connected to the service. It is available for sale across major retail outlets like Croma, Reliance Digital and Jumbo Electronics as well as online on the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft said subscriptions for Office 365 has been growing with more than 3.5 million home users paying for the service.
Besides, Microsoft also showcased Venue Maps on Bing, which can be used to navigate malls across the country. The service displays interior and exterior maps as a layer on top of Bing Maps, complete with store names and location data. Venue map data is provided from the Nokia Maps application as well as via Bing searches for 120 malls and 3 airports (Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi).

It also showcased Skype group video calling (now available for free on Xbox One, Windows desktop and Mac) and Internet Explorer's 3D FishGL, a colourful, nautical-themed WebGL graphics benchmark.