Microsoft to beef in place its entry-level Office 365 providing

Microsoft is adding some new capabilities — including Exchange ActiveSync support — to its lowest-end Office 365 offering.

In a post to help his “The microsoft project 2010 Exhibit Board” blog, project professional 2010 Senior Partner Technological know-how Advisor Jesper Osgaard described some of the tweaks the Softies are making to the Office 365 K-plan (kiosk worker plan):

Exchange Online Kiosk Plan: project professional 2007 is adding Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support for mobile devices to the current Exchange Online Kiosk plan. Currently, users with which plan only have POP mail capabilities. “With that change, we will allow all smartphones that support EAS, including iPhone, Andriod devices, Nokia phones (Symbian), together with Windows phones, ” Osgaard blogged.

E-mail storage: Microsoft is doubling e-mail storage space for K plan users from 500 MB to at least one GB.

Exchange Online Archiving: Microsoft will be enabling “Exchange Online Archiving (EOA) which include legal hold and unlimited storage, to be offered as an add-on to any Exchange Online plan, including Kiosk and Exchange Plan 1, ” he said.

I asked Osgaard when these changes may be effective and he said that date is still TBD (to end up determined). Microsoft is rolling available updates across Office 365 for a quarterly basis, with the latest set of updates hitting at the end of 2011. Microsoft is believed to have sold above 5 million Office 365 seats, 90 percent of that create gone to small small businesses.

Office 365 is the Microsoft-hosted bundle of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online together with Lync Online that Ms launched in late June 2010. It is considered to be Microsoft’s alternative to Yahoo Apps. The Kiosk arrange for Office 365 currently will start at $2 per user each and every month. I have a question in to the Office 365 team relating to the timing and whether there will be any pricing changes as a result of these new features.

Update: Microsoft officials are not commenting on when the new features will be turned on. However, one Office 365 MVP, Loryan Strant, said that will happen globally “around March 2012. ” Microsoft officials did say that the new features will be part of both Exchange Online K and Office 365 K, with prices remaining at $2 per user each and every month, and $4 per user per month, respectively.