Microsoft needs to be careful in this process, because a half-baked offer could harm the Office brand and fail to live up to the expectations people have for the suite, he said.

And Microsoft needs to figure that out quickly, because users want the option to employ the applications on a variety of devices today, Creese said.

"The 'Windows first' days, especially in mobile devices, are absolutely over," he said. "Microsoft may wish it otherwise, but that's not how people are working."

Karcher concurs. "There's no question that mobile devices are exploding in adoption and people want to see what is Microsoft's story for getting Office on those devices," he said.

Another priority should be to beef up the features in Office 365, so users don't feel that to take advantage of the cloud model they have to compromise on functionality.