iNVEZZ.com, Saturday, May 10: Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) has launched in a public preview a new addition to its Office productivity suite, called Office Mix. The new application, which was made available to the public earlier this week, "offers a simple way to turn your PowerPoint slides into interactive online lessons and presentations," the world's largest software company said in a blog post.
In yesterday's trading, Microsoft shares closed 0.25 percent lower at $39.54. The company's stock has advanced 5.7 percent since the start of the year.
Mixes
"Our goal is to make it easy to create an online lesson or presentation with something you already know how to use – PowerPoint," Microsoft noted. "We call these online, interactive presentations 'mixes' and the tool created to build them is Office Mix."
The Redmond-based company further explained that Office Mix adds a number of functionalities to PowerPoint 2013. The app gives users the ability to record audio or make a video of themselves giving a lecture; write and draw directly in PowerPoint as if it were a whiteboard; and obtain stats on who has viewed a particular Mix and how they've interacted with it (via quizzes, learning exercises and other tools).
Shift
The release of Office Mix provides a further indication of Microsoft's shift in strategy, especially when it comes to its most profitable product – Microsoft Office. Since the appointment of its new chief executive officer Satya Nadella, the company has made clear its intention to break from its traditional "Windows-first" approach and that it will sharpen its focus on cloud and web-based services. Office Mix adds to the utility of the web-based version of its productivity suite, Office 365. At the same time this extension to PowerPoint allows the company to gain ground in a promising market such as education.
As of yesterday's US close buy Microsoft shares at $39.54
As of yesterday's US close sell Microsoft shares at $39.54
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Source : http://invezz.com/news/equities/10869-microsoft-share-price-software-giant-announces-office-mix
