Microsoft announces Office 2016 rollout

Update lauded as 'big step forward' by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Microsoft today released Office 2016 and billed its arrival as a pivotal step for the company.

The rollout was announced by Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella on the Official Microsoft Blog.

"Microsoft has set a bold ambition to reinvent productivity and business process in this mobile-first, cloud-first world," Nadella said. "Today's release of Office 2016 is a big step forward."

In the post, Nadella highlighted the new applications available in the update, which are geared around mobility and collaboration.

"Mobility. Conversations. Intelligence. This is why Office has transformed from a familiar set of tools like Word, PowerPoint and Excel to a new way to work together on the fly with new solutions such as OneDrive, Sway, Sunrise, WunderList, Outlook, Skype, Yammer, Delve and Power BI," he said.

"By subscribing to Office 365, customers get continuously updated and enhanced apps and services for use across their devices."

Last month, CRN reported an extension to the list of Surface resellers in the UK, as part of Microsoft's global rollout of the device through the channel, and Nadella said Office 2016 will be "integrated across Windows, Office and innovative devices such as Surface".

News of the Office rollout follows the launch of Microsoft's latest operating system Windows 10 in July.