A recent Microsoft job posting suggests a possible new future for Office:
Now is the time to take Office programmability to the next level. We’re a small but strong team within Visual Studio that is currently in the planning stages for Office 15 programmability tools. One of our key goals is to enable professional developers to contribute to the Office platform by making development for Office as easy and fun as building applications for the next version of Windows! Integration of JavaScript/HTML5 will enable developers to create rich applications that span clients and server, integrate with Office 365, enhance the SharePoint experience, and unlock new scenarios that unleash the great potential that lies in the combination of Office and the cloud.
Microsoft has previously suggested that HTML5 and JavaScript will also play a more prominent role in application development for Windows 8.
