Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) today announced details about the success of Office 2008 for Mac and reaffirms its commitment to future products for the Mac.
Office 2008 launched at Macworld Expo 2008, and sales for the productivity suite continue to soar, selling faster than any previous version of Office for Mac in the past 19 years.
The Mac BU developed Office 2008 to help Mac users simplify their work with a Mac-like interface, tools to easily create professional documents, and, most notably, the most cross-platform compatible suite on the market for the Mac. The Mac BU today is releasing Service Pack 1 (SP1) that provides increased stability, security and performance enhancements to the suite. Customers can download the update for free at hhttp://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx, and it will be also available from Microsoft Auto Update. The group also is providing a glimpse at the road map of Office for Mac by announcing the return of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in the next version.
“The response has been amazing — since we launched in January, the velocity of sales for Office 2008 is nearly three times what we saw after the launch of Office 2004,” said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Mac BU at Microsoft, in the press release. “As we set our course for future versions, we are working closely with customers and will also expand our staff to ensure that Office for Mac remains the most powerful and compatible productivity suite for Mac customers.”
The Mac BU also announced it is bringing VBA-language support back to the next version of Office for Mac. Sharing information with customers as early as possible continues to be a priority for the Mac BU to allow customers to plan for their software needs.2 Although the Mac BU increased support in Office 2008 with alternate scripting tools such as Automator and AppleScript — and also worked with MacTech Magazine to create a reference guide, available at http://www.mactech.com/vba-transition-guide — the team recognizes that VBA-language support is important to a select group of customers who rely on sharing macros across platforms. The Mac BU is always working to meet customers’ needs and already is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac.
Source: Microsloth
MacDailyNews Take: This highlights the discrepancy between looking at overall market share vs. the un- or poorly-measured market share of real people who buy and use computers. When you strip out all of the dumb terminals, cash registers, limited-purpose (and OS-limited) PCs that are sitting in workers’ cubicles, etc. and think about real people buying computers and also buying software for those computers, Apples’ Mac market share is even stronger than most people would imagine. This is why Microsoft continues to make Office for Mac. And why they are selling it in record numbers. It’s also why they are bringing back VBA support as a growing base of customers are obviously demanding that Microsoft not intentionally cripple Office for Mac in order to try to force the sale of more Windows PCs. Microsoft sees the writing on the wall. Muahahahaha!
Windows-only developers should take note and remember what’s always been true: Mac users have more disposable income and have proven they’ll pay more for software, accessories, and peripherals than their Windows counterparts.
This also highlights the growing influx of Windows to Mac switchers who may believe they need Office. But, really, seriously, do you need Microsoft Office or do you just think you do? Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try and find out.
Enjoy now Mafia$oft. It wont last!
The reason it’s selling faster is because so many more people are buying Macs.
And no, iWork isn’t there, yet.
Ugh. I was so much happier when I was Microsoft-free.
Just installed the new beta of OpenOffice… laaaaaargely good enough to open and save .doc stuff!
I’m happy with office 2008…. the alternatives are not as good (iwork,neooffice/openoffice). If MS was smart, they’d have their MacBU influence their other products.
For the vast majority of Computer users iWork is all they will need. For the hardcore MS Office users I’d Recommend Open Office as their replacement.
I have office 2008.
Yup, MS made it ….just good enough.
…is SP1 a fancy term or updating office to version 12.0.1?
The removal of the feature was an effort to diminish the appeal of the Mac in corporate spaces.
The return of the feature indicates pressure from the customer in sufficient volume.
This is not earth shattering, just a pleasant rumble.
Many Macs are sold to switchers. One of the arguments for switching is: “Yes you can continue to use MS Office”. So maybe the switchers are behind this MS Office fo Mac success. Then again, they won’t buy any Office for Windows.
i think one of the reasons for the huge success is the price. i remember it wasn’t so easy to get a “student”-version of office 2004 for 129 euros, mostly only the standard-version for 499 was available. but the student-version of office 2008 is sold everywhere i can buy a mac for 119 euros and no one cares whether you’re a student or not.
I have been playing with Office 2008 for a couple of weeks, to compare with the free apps I push (http://www.thefreemac.com). It really felt like OpenOffice + iWork but without the snappiness of either (and that was on a MacBook Pro).
We buy it because we all buy it. It is like Photoshop. Have you tried Pixelmator? $60 and superb. We will still spend our $$$ so that we know the right apps for our resumes.
They have to make Office 2010 (or whatever) feel less bloated. Modularize the program more and look at apps like Bean or NisusWriter.
Yeah, where’s the „SP1“?
I have NeoOffice and iWork – that’s all I need. Microsoft Office on the Mac is a POS.
I bought Office ’08 thinking it would run… well, snappier… on my Intel/Leapord Mac Pro than did the pre-Universal Binary versions. I am daily disappointed by its slowness. Slowness to launch (Word, Excel, all apps in the suite), slowness use. I suspect it has something to do with my extensive font list. I would like to hear from others that are running Office ’08 in regards to launch times and other performance opinions. Does anyone see significant improvement in speed and snappiness versus earlier versions?
To celebrate this wonderful development, I have just upgraded from Office X to Office 2004. Can’t use Excel 2008 because it lacks the Analytic Tools.
MDN – you simply don’t get it. Many users NEED Microsoft Office if they want to use a Mac at work. We have 150 windows users, and 2 Mac users. I work in R&D;and was able to stealthy migrate to using a Mac as my work machine. I would not have been able to do this without MS Office.
Rather than constantly griping about Microsoft, you should be thanking them for allowing the migration to Macs in the enterprise.
When VBA returns to the Mac version, I’d consider upgrading but only if and when they get it working (properly) again.
Blah, blah, blah
Don’t need Microsoft. Use iWork. Use Neo Office.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Yes, we hate Microsoft. But if you have heavy work to get done, those others just don’t cut it. At least not for spreadsheets and word processing. I will grant you that Keynote is better than PowerPoint.
Blah, blah, blah.
We return you to your previously scheduled diatribe.
P.S. The lack of VBA is why I have not upgraded from Office for Mac 2004 to 2008.
Maybe Microsoft is learning new tricks.
Nahh!
“The Mac BU also announced it is bringing VBA-language support back to the next version of Office for Mac. The Mac BU is always working to meet customers’ needs and already is hard at work on the next version of Office for Mac.”
But first, several more years of development for Messenger for Mac. Not for feature parity but for a whole new super cool set of colorful and shiny icons. Maybe even animated! (still in alpha)
Welcome to Mactopia.
“Rather than constantly griping about Microsoft, you should be thanking them for allowing the migration to Macs in the enterprise.”
“Thank you sir. May I have another?”
*THWACK*
“Thank you sir. May I have another?”
*THWACK*
“Thank you sir. May I have another?”
*THWACK*
“Thank you sir. May I have another?”
*THWACK*
“Mac users have more disposable income and have proven they’ll pay more for software, accessories, and peripherals than their Windows counterparts.”
IF it is any good.
So we need to wait until 2012 to get VBA support?
My office is mainly mac users, but we do a LOT of collaboration with outside offices that are all windows based. We need VBA and thus NeoOffice, etc won’t cut it. I do agree with an above poster though, Keynote does rock and the powerpoint export is decent enough that I do all my presentations in it.
Until they give us VBA, we’re hanging out with 2004. I hope it still works in 2012…
I just upgraded from Office 2004 to Office 2008 and I’m asking myself why? O2008 is slower and has no new and improved features since the upgrade. The Spotlight integration in Entourage would be great, if it worked. And my Mac definitely isn’t snappier.