Microsoft announces the availability of Office 2013 in Nigeria

Microsoft has announced the availability of Office 2013 in Nigeria– the next iteration of the company’s flagship Office product line for consumers. Office 2013 has been designed to work with both touch and a mouse, and works seamlessly in the cloud giving the user an unmatched on- and offline experience.

“Office 2013 makes the end user more productive in both a work and home environment,” says Marc Israel, Office Division Group Lead for Microsoft West, East and Central Africa and Indian Ocean Islands. “With Office you can continue working offline, while the integration with cloud technologies allows you to sync your documents seamlessly allowing you to be far more productive.”

Cloud technologies are fast becoming part of everyday life, which is why Microsoft’s Office 365 Home Premium makes sense for the African market. Office 365 Home Premium, one of the offerings within Office 2013, is a cloud service designed for busy households and people juggling ever-increasing work and family responsibilities. The new offering includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications; works across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs and Macs; and comes with extra SkyDrive storage and Skype calling — all for =N=12,800 for an annual subscription, the equivalent of less than =N=1,120 per month.

Speaking during the worldwide launch of Office 365 Home Premium on January 29 this year, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft highlighted that this marks the next big step in Microsoft’s transformation to a devices and services business. “This is so much more than just another release of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service with all the full-featured Office applications people know and love, together with impressive new cloud and social benefits,” he said.

Microsoft also announced it will now deliver many new features and services to the cloud first, transforming the company’s traditional three-year release cycle. Now, new features and services stream to subscribers as soon as they are ready, keeping subscribers always up to date while eliminating the hassles of upgrading.

“This is a major leap forward,” says Israel. “We know that people’s needs are changing rapidly, particularly on the African continent. This new iteration of Microsoft Office allows them to adopt technology that changes with them, meeting their everyday requirements.”

Customers believe that the new iteration of Microsoft Office allows them to focus on growing their businesses, rather than IT functions. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years of doing this, it’s that no small business knows how to run a server,” says David Kroenke, Author and Small Business Owner. “And furthermore, they don’t want to run a server. They want to run a business. With Office 365, you can manage your employees, not your computers.” Hermi Valk, Owner of BabyBloem says it has streamlined communications tremendously. “It’s so easy to communicate now. I can turn my computer on and see when China’s online. With just one click, I can ask them a question. Office 365 makes the world more accessible.”

Office Home & Student 2013, Home & Business 2013, Professional 2013 and Office 365 Home Premium are available as of March 19th in all Microsoft Resellers and Retailers across Nigeria. All editions come with a DVD with the exception of Office 365 Home Premium that requires a download from http://www.office.com. With new streaming technologies and application virtualization, Office applications are ready to be executed on the user’s machine in minutes.

About Office 365 Home Premium
Office 365 Home Premium is available in 162 markets in 21 languages and includes the following:
– The latest and most complete set of Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access
– One license for the entire household to use Office on up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs or Macs, and Office on Demand available from any Internet-connected PC1
– An additional 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage, nearly three times the amount available with a free SkyDrive account
– 60 free Skype world calling minutes per month to call mobile phones, landlines or PCs around the world2
– Future upgrades, so you always use the latest time-saving technology

People can learn more about Office 365 Home Premium or try it free for 30 days at http://www.office.com.