Microsoft has released in beta a new software suite targeted at the consumer market and named “Albany”. Product manager Bryson Gordon explains the product:

“Albany” is the codename for a new all-in-one subscription service
of essential software and services consumers told us were most important to
them. We’ve pulled together the productivity tools people need to organize
their lives, security to help keep their personal information safe and
online services that make it easy for them to keep in touch with friends and
family, and folded them all into a single service that also ensures the
user’s PC is running the latest security and productivity
software. Bryson goes on to note that the Albany package
will include Microsoft Office Home and other productivity and collaboration
software components.

Albany will be a subscription based service which makes me skeptical that Microsoft can compete with the increasingly robust free offerings from Google and others. Google has started to include powerful collaboration and productivity tools such as Google Spreadsheets where users can quickly create forms for data entry which can be used across the internet. Companies like Zoho also offer some remarkably powerful online tools for database creation, most at no charge. In an environment where free services are rapidly replacing subscription services, can Microsoft Albany make much of a mark?

Source: Microsoft Press Release