The Industry Standard reports that Microsoft will miss the target date for the Office Web Apps Tech Preview. The original plan was to release test versions of the applications in August. In an email the Industry Standard received, Microsoft stated the following:

"While they will not be available by the end of August, we are still planning to release them soon."

Microsoft did not provide more specific information about when the test applications will be available. Guess we’ll have to wait and see, eh? The final versions of the Web apps will be released at the same time Microsoft releases Office 2010, currently in Tech Preview, which is planned for the first half of next year.

Office Web Apps is the online companion to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote applications, and will be available in three ways:

• through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost
• on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers
• via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering

Previous articles about Office