So I recently started looking at perhaps investing in a new laptop or maybe a ultrabook. It has been some time since I have done this and it seems that Technology and choices are endless. The same seems to be true of MS Office. So where to start?
Currently I use MS Office 2010, am a power user of Powerpoint and Visio, and even excell. I also use Photoshop and sketchup a lot.
I work for a large educational institute where I can get MS Office products for a song.
I also use my iPad at work, use skydrive and dropbox a lot.
So what are my choices then? Do I get an ultrabook with something like a 128 SSD? Or perhaps one with an HHD of 500 GB? Or perhaps the Surface Pro?


Portablity is a concern for me as well as easy access to my files whether I am working on my files at work on my office PC or home or elsewhere.
So if anyone has any insight I would love to hear from you please.

I'm not sure what your post actually has to do with the future of MS Office, for which no end is in sight. Office 2013 is the latest version and MS is already working on its successor.

As for what hardware you should get, that really depends on what your needs are, especially in the areas of power consumption, application support and performance.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I think perhaps I could have asked "Is office headed towards promoting Office 365 over downloadable (or disk) versions of Office?" Wondering what members here are using or considering using in the future.
Hope this clarifies my inquiry.

Not being prescient, I can only anticipate that MS will revise its software delivery methods to keep pace with technology. There was a time Office came on 360Kb 5.25in floppy disks; then it moved to 1.44Mb 3.5in floppy disks, then to 650Mb CDs, 4.7Gb DVDs and, latterly, downloads. As each move occurs, older technology gets dropped. I don't anticipate MS promoting downloads over physical media (or vice-versa) anytime soon.

For the lifespan of any PC/laptop you buy today, I'd expect the last two of these to be fully supported. I wouldn't expect MS to start providing software on SSDs, for example.

None of the above affects the portability/accessibility of your files, though, which remains independent of how the software is delivered.

FWIW, I use Office 2003 & 2010 on a laptop, and both products were obtained as downloads. Conversely, I previously used both Office 2000 and 2007 and these were obtained on CD/DVD media.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

There are far too many users whose security and confidentiality concerns will not allow use of cloud solutions (law firms and hospitals are primary examples) to allow MS to go to a purely cloud approach IMO.

SSD's are more prone to fragmenting files, or so I've been told by some professionals.
Of course you can defrag regularly I suppose.
An Office in the cloud would be slow I think.

Everyone I talk to says to get a MAc. PC's are becoming less reliable, particularly some name brands.
The Mother Boards don't hold up to higher processor heat issues for more than a couple of years.

I'm seriously thinking of making my next laptop a Macbook Pro.
HTH