Office 12 arrives earlier than Longhorn

Microsoft released a few details of the next version of Office, Office 12. The original plan was to release Office 12 with Longhorn, Microsoft has decided to roll the suite out in 2006. A few more details have trickled out.

The article with those details is over here.

A lot of the new collaboration tools that will be rolled into Office 12 are apparently drawn from Microsoft Office Communicator 2005. The VoIP stuff in particular is interesting, as its further encroachment into the guts of the world's most popular office suite lends credence to the idea that VoIP is poised to wipe out traditional long distance in the business space real soon now.