Microsoft Office 16 is expected to hit store shelves in the second half of 2015. Office is currently the No. 1 office suite and that's why Microsoft is in no hurry to develop a new version of it, and according to information coming from company executives at the TechEd Europe 2014 conference in Spain, Office 16 should hit shelves in the second half of 2015.
The general manager of Office and Office 365 Marketing, Ms. Julia White, commented on the release date of the next office suite at the conference in Barcelona that both the client and server applications that are part of the Office 16 package should make their debut next year.
Has it already been delayed? Interestingly, pretty much everyone was expecting Office 16 to come out a little earlier, likely in the early months of next year, but it seems the company has already delayed the product's release.
Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley reports that Office 16 was originally scheduled to be released in spring 2015, but the company decided to push it back a few months for undisclosed reasons.
Perhaps one reason for the delay is the debut of Windows 10, which is also scheduled for spring 2015, and the reason is that Microsoft doesn't want to launch two of its biggest programs at the same time. Of course, due to the distrust issues with Windows 8.1, Microsoft decided to promote Windows 10 first and delay the release date of Office.
However, according to the aforementioned source, a version of Office that comes with optimizations for touch screens is very close to hitting the market, and that the company is already testing it with its technicians within the company, but also with a very limited circle of external testers. It is very likely that Microsoft will decide to release this version of Office, which in addition to touch screens will also be optimized specifically for Windows 10, at the same time as Windows 10.
