As Microsoft looks at offering tailored, market-specific Office System products, this fall it will release in Japan a new product called Microsoft Office Interconnect, currently under beta testing, that is essentially a contact manager. The product allows users to have a unique, electronic business card that can be mailed around, secured with digital signatures and allowed to travel among the user's contacts, colleagues and connections.
When the user's personal data changes, the new information can be electronically updated in a secure, peer-to-peer type of system, Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's senior vice president for Office, told analysts and the media here Thursday. Giving his annual address at the financial analyst day at the Redmond campus, Sinofsky said the Office System faces more challenges now than ever. As products and technologies in the Office family have increased, the number of competitors has gone up proportionately, he said.
News source: eWeek
