It has been known about for several days, and is certainly no secret - but at least it's now official. The press releases have filtered out and in a formal capacity (al be it a little tongue in cheek) as German software house SoftMaker GmbH have announced the final piece of their puzzle and released the beta version of SoftMaker Office for Handheld PC and Windows CE.

SoftMaker started their quest to give Microsoft Office a run for its money right here on the Handheld PC - and they certainly took Pocket Office out of the equation, describing Pocket Office as but a "Toy Office" compared to their offering. The public beta continues to nod towards that tradition bringing new editions of TextMaker and PlanMaker to the Handheld PC as a unified package.

The fully functional Office 2006 beta is time trialled to operate until 31 January 2007, and will enabled the public to experience the SoftMaker formula first hand before the RTM early next year.

SoftMaker has also released preliminary pricing details for the suite. Priced at $69.95 USD/€69.95 EUD (£50.00 GBP, ¥10,000 JPY est.), the fully Microsoft Office compatible application bundle is set to take on the premium-priced dominance of Microsoft Office, particularly in the embedded device sector.
More information on the release can be found on the SoftMaker website.

View: SoftMaker Office 2006 Beta