Will there be an Office 13?

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Will Office 12, the radical overhaul planned for Microsoft's cash-cow desktop software, be the last of its kind?

It's likely, said Thomas Bittman, an analyst with Gartner, especially given the company's recent moves to establish its MSN online service as more of a development platform. Instead of another huge, monolithic Office release, we're more likely to see a series of smaller, services-based products, he said.

"MSN is becoming a desktop. Microsoft has seen the writing on the wall and needs to treat (MSN) as a platform for services, just like Windows," Bittman said on Monday during a presentation at Gartner's Symposium/ITExpo conference here.

"It's possible that in the future there won't be another release like Office 12. There may not be an office 13. Office 12 will be successful, but there are many questions as to whether an Office 13 would be," Bittman said.

Since Office is one of Microsoft's most profitable products, the company will likely proceed carefully. "The challenge is to grow that MSN business and not cannibalize that Office business too rapidly," Bittman said.

Office 12 expected sometime next year, will include some big changes to the way the program looks and feels.

For instance, the company plans to do away with a system that depends on people remembering which series of menus lead to a particular command. Instead, users will see a "ribbon" of different commands above their document, with the options changing depending on the task.

Microsoft previewed the software at last month's Professional Developer's Conference.