“Microsoft said Monday that it has wrapped up development work on Office 2004–the latest Macintosh version of Office–with the software slated to hit stores next month. The company said it will start mass-producing copies of the software next week, intending to have it on retail store shelves by the third week of May. As previously reported, Office 2004 adds a number of new features, including a new note-taking mode within Word and a project center for improved collaboration,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News. “Microsoft had promised that the software would debut in the first half of this year.”
“‘Things have gone really well,’ said Jessica Sommer, a project manager in Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit. ‘The bug counts have been very low.’ Microsoft is not making any pricing changes with Office 2004. Last year, the company cut the price of Mac Office by $100, to $399, for the standard version. The company also has a $149 student and teacher version and a $499 ‘professional’ version that includes Virtual PC for the Mac,” Fried reports.
“Although Microsoft was initially disappointed with sales of the Mac OS X version of Office, Sommer said sales have improved, as more Mac users have switched to new versions of the Mac OS,” Fried reports. “‘We’ve seen stronger sales in the past year than in the first year,’ Sommer said. ‘That’s pretty obviously due to OS X adoption.'” Full article here.
“According to Jupiter Research, 11 percent of businesses with $50 million revenue or greater, report running Office v. X, while another 8 percent plan Office 2004 upgrades this year,” Jim Dalrymple writes for MacCentral. “‘Without Mac Office, Apple would have a harder time selling systems to companies where the productivity suite is essential; considering Macs are often run in shops where Windows dominates, cross-platform availability is a major consideration,’ Joe Wilcox, senior analyst at Jupiter Research, says. ‘About 90 percent of business users run Office, so the Mac version is a must-have product in Apple’s catalog.'”
“Apple and Microsoft have been friends and rivals since the companies first began. Over the years, features and the look and feel of products tend to be similar after application revisions, and as Wilcox points out, even Microsoft’s upcoming Longhorn operating system has some familiar features,” Dalrymple writes. “‘People forget that Microsoft’s early application success was on the Macintosh first, with Excel and Word, long before Windows,’ says Wilcox. ‘No operating system is successful without good applications, so, from that perspective Apple owes much to Microsoft. Over the years, Microsoft has taken many cues from Apple, starting with the graphical user interface adopted for Windows. Apple’s mark is on forthcoming products, too–a number of Longhorn’s publicly showcased features bear striking resemblance to Mac OS X.'” Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews article:
Mac users should not buy Microsoft software – May 16, 2003
Isolated from business??
Come on… We don’t want to be part of m$ $hit.
Let them keep their “conference calls for loosers”
One Guy from Finland. If you are a member of a company, and they all are on a conference call using Skype but you can’t because you are on a Mac what message do you think that is going to send?
I agree iChat is better but we need to make sure that as many business oriented apps as possible support the Mac Platform. Its important.
well finish fly on an A380
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ichat = Boeing777ah
Jack A
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They wont use m$ $hit because I am the Vice CEO
It sounds much better in German:
Korporativer Vizef�hrer
In Finnish it does not sound that cool
I saw the previews to Office for the Mac, it just sucks you right into microsoft land. like going to Disney World or something.
In Office there is a search online feature, does it search Google or let you choose? No, it chooses MSN for YOU.
If M$ didn’t try to control you and just provided a superior user experience then fine, at least let people choose what works for them.
With Microsoft even their ads have some jackass in a butterfly outfit following you around. Who the fuck wants that? I’m not stupid, I can decide which program is best.
With Microsoft they take that choice away from us, so I choose not to give them any of my money.
And yes you can run most buisnesses perfectly fine without using any Microsoft product what so ever. But they want to take that choice away from you.
Appleworks loads in a blink, reads and write M$ word and excel files, is cheaper.
And the result of the Space Shuttle crash was due to “PowerPoint makes you dumb” Search Slashdot. NASA agrees.
As a high ranking Microsoft officer was heard saying
“You know why the new Windows is called Longhorn?”
“It’s because our customers are cattle, they take anything we feed them”
Actually “Longhorn” Came from a Bar that is at the base of a mountain called Whistler….Dumbass..thats dumbass not dumass…
http://www.longhornsaloon.ca/
Ship in May? So that�s when the new power macs are coming out…
hagar57
Redmont[d], Oregon has nothing to do with Microsoft. Microsoft is located in Washington. Oregon is part of the USA and would not allow a monopoly to operate within its borders. Come to think of it, Oregon does not allow most businesses to operate within its borders.