World’s leading software firm Microsoft has rolled out the latest version of its Office suite, which is expected to show whether firm’s Office suite business would continue to thrive against alternative from Google.

Office 2010 includes improved versions of the Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint applications which run inside web browsers and allow people to edit documents in collaboration with other users.

The new release comes with a number of improvements such as editing photos in Word, using video in PowerPoint presentations, collaborating on documents.

Applications are expected to continue to be the heart of the Office software. Firms will install new applications on their PCs. The new Outlook e-mail program will tap into information from users’ social networks like Facebook and other social networking sites.

Microsoft’s Office 2010 will face major competition from open source. OpenOffice is free and cross-platform. The cloud - especially Google Docs could also pose a threat to it.

Office suite business accounted for about 60 per cent of Microsoft’s operating profit during it past fiscal year. In the first quarter of 2010, Microsoft Office generated revenue of $4.2 billion.