Microsoft’s press release, verbatim:
Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) today shared details about the next version of Microsoft Office for Mac, announcing that a new application, Outlook for Mac, will replace Entourage for Mac. MacBU is providing this early information to meet the planning needs of enterprise customers. For current Entourage users, Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition is available today, providing performance and reliability improvements and enabling users to sync Tasks, Notes and Categories. These updates demonstrate the team’s commitment to meet Mac users’ productivity needs and to improve the overall Office experience. MacBU also announced a simplified SKU lineup to help make product selection more intuitive for customers. The new lineup introduces Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition in addition to the current offering of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition.
“It is an exciting time for the MacBU with updates to our current products and the first public announcement about the next version of Office for Mac. For several years we have focused on providing the best Microsoft Exchange client for the Mac, and the Web Services Edition delivers that today for Entourage users,” said Eric Wilfrid, general manager for the MacBU at Microsoft. “Outlook for Mac will bring features our customers have long requested — such as Information Rights Management — that make working across platforms even easier. I think people will see that this move to Outlook for Mac is more than just a name change.”
The infrastructure changes in Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition, provide more agility in development for the future — marking the first step in delivering Outlook for Mac. Web Services Edition provides faster data synchronization so current Entourage users on Exchange will experience improved e-mail and calendaring support. The beta was launched earlier this year and has since been used by several large enterprise customers including NASA and Wesleyan University. Entourage 2008, Web Services Edition is available to current Entourage users on Office 2008 for Mac SP2, with all updates applied, on Exchange 2007 SP1 RU4 or later. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/itpros/entourage-ews.mspx.
Outlook for Mac releasing in the next version reflects the team’s commitment to further develop the Mac’s leading productivity suite. This new application will deliver significant changes — ultimately allowing for increased productivity across platforms, which continues to be the top request of enterprise customers. The MacBU today shared a few of the features that will be in Outlook for Mac, including these:
• Cocoa. Built from the ground up using Cocoa providing users with improved integration with the Mac OS
• New database. A high-speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching
• Information Rights Management. Helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission to access the content
“Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server have been a cornerstone of communications and collaboration for our enterprise customers,” said Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president of the Office product management group at Microsoft. “Today’s release of the Web Services Edition strengthens Exchange connectivity for Entourage customers and sets the stage for the move to the new application — Outlook for Mac. These updates continue Microsoft and the MacBU’s tradition of delivering the most complete solution to help customers manage their time, and better share their information and collaborate with others.”
Introducing Business Edition — Choose the Right Office for You
Based on customer and partner feedback, the MacBU identified the need for a refreshed product line, and the new Office 2008 for Mac lineup ensures that customers can choose the right product to fit their needs at the right price. The lineup now includes two Office 2008 editions: Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition (currently on store shelves), and the new Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition.
The new Office 2008 Business Edition features a powerful suite of tools, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, in addition to new features designed to help users manage their business, organize their data and present a professional image. In addition, Exchange Server support and reliable compatibility with Windows-based Office software takes collaboration and productivity to the next level. New features in Office 2008 Business Edition include these:
• Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition. Improves performance, brings new features and support for the latest version of Exchange Server
• Microsoft Document Connection for Mac. Helps improve access and browsing to documents on SharePoint Products and Technologies and Microsoft Office Live Workspace
• New art. More than 200 business-related templates and professional clip art
• lynda.com training. Training for beginning to advanced users by lynda.com Inc.
Availability and Pricing
Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition will launch on Sept. 15, 2009, and will be available for pre-order on Aug. 18 for the estimated retail price of $399.95 (U.S) and $239.95 (U.S) for customers eligible for Version Upgrade. Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition is currently available for the estimated retail price of $149.95 (U.S.) for the full retail version. The free Entourage 2008 for Mac, Web Services Edition, can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx?link_name=downloads.
Source: Microsoft
MacDailyNews Take: Why bother bringing back Outlook to a platform whose market share growth is nothing more than a rounding error?
Because Microsoft, having precious few products that actually make money (Office being one of them), and despite the constant stream of verbal buffoonery from its idiot CEO, actually can see the writing on the wall. With Mac’s growth coming at Windows’ expense, Microsoft desperately wants to continue selling Office to Mac users, even if they have to remove the artificial handicaps they’ve imposed upon Mac versions of their software in repeated failed attempts to force users to the inferior Windows.
In addtion, the forthcoming release of Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server, which will securely deliver corporate email, contact, calendar, and intranet web services to iPhone and iPod touch users far more cost effectively than Microsoft Windows Server, likely has further prodded Microsoft to make this move.
Microsoft just blinked.
MacDailyNews Note: We have long been 100% Microsoft-free and shall remain so ad infinitum. Do you really need Microsoft Office? Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’09 trial a try and find out for yourself.
Nice! Apple just made Entourage working on iPhone…
In related news:
“Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling Word in the U.S.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 – 11:32 AM EDT”
This is great news in a despair laced sort of way.
Good. It was pure shit!
I can’t wait not spending $400 on Office when it finally ships.
So let’s see, I can transition from Entourage for the Mac to Outlook…..or I can transition from Entourage for the Mac to Mac Mail. Why on earth is MS forcing me to transition at EXACTLY the same time that Mac Mail picks up support for MS Entourage server? If forced to transition, I can now completely forgo MS software and use the free mail client on the mac that integrates will everything else I use…….
Microsoft clearly sees Office as a big stick with which to keep Steve Jobs in line. Unfortunately for Ballmer, Steve is nimble enough to dodge the stick.
MS is frighten that Apple will eat their lunch with Snow Leopard and it’s built-in Exchange support. Mail and iCal with Snow Leopard will sync with the Exchange Server. After all these years of Microsoft trying to keep Apple User as Second Class Exchange Users and on the cusp of Apple rendering Entourage as redundant, Microsoft said wait, wait !! ok we’ll give Mac Users full Outlook support before Apple does something serious like putting Mail and iCal together in one Application with full Exchange Server support.
I think that with Snow Leopard it will still, in the end, render Outlook for the Mac as a waste of disk space.
NO Microsoft product, not one, will EVER darken my Mac again…
Thanks, M$, for restoring a product (Outlook) that you dropped about 8 years ago in favor of the inferior Entourage (Outlook 2001 is the last version that I remember, anyway). You dropped M$ Project. You left us hanging when you released the Windows version of Office with XML. More recently you dropped VB from the Office products.
I have been predicting and looking forward to the decline of M$ for years. The day that I my work and home computers are M$-free will be one worth celebrating.
MS is making this announcement in an effort to pre-empt Snow Leopard’s support for Exchange server. Between the lines about “providing this early information to meet the planning needs of enterprise customers.” is the real truth….
MS wants the corporate IT ubermeisters to stall off the Mac users with a promise of Outlook to be delivered in LATE 2010. (possibly if on target)
It is just a form of FUD.
@Macaday
Amen.
I made that same vow a few years ago, and still am going strong. However, I’m going back for my PhD this year, and so far resisting a move to Office. I’m not weak, but resistance may finally prove to be futile.
Where is the iWorks link on the MDN take when you need one.
What took them so long? They tried to steer people to get PC by leaving Mac users without Outlook (or functionality there of). Didn’t work!
Microsoft is getting nervous, because they already recognized, if they lose the Office market, they are pretty dead.
I wonder if they’ll be able to sell Word with that Office suite . . . .
Next Office? iWork
Ooookay!
Please explain to me why I would need this, anyway? The last time I started Entourage is prehistoric. I access the Exchange email server my University forces me to use just fine with Mail. I expect it to get the last hitches I experience with this access to be resolved when I switch to Snow Leopard.
WTF do I need Outlook for? Just another zombie program filling up my HD…
Why not bring Entourage to Windows and kill Outlook?
“Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition will launch (late) 2009” ?
‘New database. A high-speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching…’
Oh, do you think they mean the one already integrated by Apple a.k.a SQLite?
Marvelous and unique Microsoft Outlook is a (very!) small enlightment for you, mac users, who don’t know anithing about the real world and what it is like to be in it. This and much more is awaiting for you when you finally switch… Wait… you already did!
For those who are still wandering: parodist≠impostor.
Your despair. Our indiference®.
I love Entourage … the TV series.
Microsoft should drop Entourage on its head, and Outlook along with it.
@Tune Zang: At least Zune Tang was funny. You, on the other hand, are just lame.
Guys, I agree with you. Frankly, I’m looking forward to Snow Leopard so that I can finally never launch Outlook 2007 in Windows/VMWare Fusion ever again (and thus kill the biggest RAM whore I’ve ever experienced).
Don’t get me wrong – I’m totally with you. But this is an important announcement if only to assuage the IT Nazis who rule corporations with an iron fist. If this means that these weenies finally feel more comfy about bringing Macs into the enterprise, all the better.
I thank Apple for making the gnomes of Redmond to finally get off the pot. I know that Microsoft is not a popular word here, but the fact that Apple has standardized on Exchange support on both the iPhone and soon, Snow Leopard should tell you something. You need only go to YouTube and view this video of Steve Jobs –
– and hear his statements on competing with Microsoft, and how that has changed. Over the course of the past 12 years, I have a hunch this has amended further.
But as much as we like to pick on Microsoft, you cannot deny the popularity of the Exchange server in business environments. We like to be purists, but businesses run on pragmatism. That Apple is baking in Exchange support in Snow Leopard (as it has in the iPhone) will only assure its commercial success. And being commercially relevant is as important as being a critical success. Sad, but true.
Put it this way: it will shut up the pundits for a few minutes and cause them to think of other ways of trying to dismiss Apple. To the pundits: best of luck, you frigtards!
Oh god, I hope it isn’t going to be THIS broken future version of Outlook…
http://fixoutlook.org/
I dunno this could be interesting, especially the new database app. Of course, I hope to see Bento grow into more of a database app than an organizer.