In the News

Microsoft said that all users who have a subscription of Office 365, which is a cloud-based service, will get the new Office 2016 for free. Other users can purchase the new suite, which is available in 14 Indian languages and 47 languages globally, starting September 23. The Office 2016 suite comes with 1 terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage which will be soon scaled up to unlimited space, according to Alok Lall, director of Microsoft Office Division, India.

In an exclusive interview, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasised on the role that technology can play in development and governance. “World class cloud technology can bring the next level of efficiency,” said Nadella highlighting the importance of cloud computing in the role that technology can play in bringing about the change. Cloud computing is one of Microsoft’s strengths.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella today said Microsoft will take lost-cost broadband technology to five lakh villages across the country. Speaking at a dinner hosted here in honour of visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nadella said that Microsoft wants to make things and make things happen. “A key part of both Make in India and Digital India, bringing world class infrastructure into India, respecting India’s digital security, sovereignty and privacy is a key milestone for us,” Nadella said.

It has been an entire year since the Indian release of Microsoft’s latest console, the Xbox One. In celebration, Amazon India has kicked off a massive sale for Xbox products, including the console as well as games. As part of the sale, the FIFA 15 bundle for the Xbox One, which is priced at Rs. 34,990, now also includes a free wireless controller along with GC worth Rs. 5,000. Accessories for the Xbox One are also available at discounted prices of up to 15% off.

VSN International is on track to grow its business by more than 200% over the next 12 months. This growth will be powered by adoption of Microsoft Office 365 by its customers. Office 365 offers SMBs productivity tools that help customers to increase collaboration amongst employees without the hassle of managing expensive IT infrastructure.

Ingram Micro has announced its participation in the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program in India. The program is designed to strengthen customer relationships and expand cloud sales by allowing channel partners to provision, bundle, invoice, manage and support Microsoft cloud offerings including Microsoft Office 365, Windows Intune, Enterprise Mobility Suite, Azure, and CRM online subscriptions with greater ease and efficiency.

Microsoft India plans to make Indore the next destination for its Digital Experience Centre after Vadodara. Centre aims at teaching educational institutes use of cloud computing, thereby promoting Microsoft platform Edu-Cloud. Microsoft India Business Development, Director, Manohar Hotchandani said, “In MP we are evaluating Indore’s market and we found education is a big segment. Therefore we are planning to bring Edu-cloud and are in talks with various educational institutes.”

Software giant Microsoft is betting big on adoption of its Office solutions on smartphones and tablets in India as it launches the latest edition of the productivity software suite. “A big area of focus for us is smartphones and tablets. Smartphone market in India is booming and we want to showcase the ease with which users can work on documents across devices using the connected set of apps and services that make collaboration easier,” said Tyler Bryson, GM, Marketing & Operations, Microsoft.

Microsoft said that all users who have a subscription of Office 365 will get the new Office 2016 for free. “Automatic updates will begin rolling out to consumer subscribers next month,” the company said. “With the launch of Office 2016 we endeavor to provide our users with a connected set of apps and services designed for modern working and collaboration which they can access easily use across platforms and devices,” said Karan Bajwa, Managing Director, Microsoft India.

Miami-headquartered affordable handset-maker BLU (Bold Like Us) on Tuesday entered the India market with the launch of two Windows-based smartphones – BLU Win HD LTE and BLU Win JR LTE – priced at Rs.7,999 and Rs.5,999 respectively. The BLU Win HD LTE will come with a 5-inch HD display and a 8-megapixel rear camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and have dual-SIM facility. The Win JR LTE will feature a 4.5-inch display, 1GB RAM and the same 410 Snapdragon processor. The rear five-megapixel camera will come with LED flash.