“I go to trade shows with a mission based on my view of what matters, which oft times yet entirely by chance fails to overlap with what everyone else considers important,” Tom Yager writes for InfoWorld.
“Consider my take on Macworld Expo. I think that the headliner there, although Mac heads will be loath to acknowledge it, will be Microsoft. It’s been four years since Office for Mac, the one piece of software that every professional Mac owner must have, has felt its creator’s touch. The new features in Office 2008 for Mac are almost incidental. Office 2008 is Universal, meaning that it runs natively on Intel and PowerPC Macs. Microsoft came by that honestly, using Xcode and Objective-C, accumulating expertise along the way that has made the developer staff blogs of Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit one of the very few I check out regularly,” Yager writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Tom’s gotta lay off the egg nog. There’s no way that Microsoft’s Office for Mac will be the headliner for Macworld Expo. Footnote, maybe. Give Apple’s free 30-day iWork ’08 trial a try today!
“Lest you think that I’m writing about Officeworld Expo, Macs built on Intel’s Penryn 45-nanometer Core 2 CPUs will roll out at Macworld. I’m selfishly hoping that a Penryn MacBook Pro will be first out of the gate,” Yager writes.
Yager also wants an eight-core Xserve, OS X Server virtualization sans GUI at the flip of a switch (or click of a button), and thinks that “the iPhone will be a star attraction as well.”
Yager predicts, “The 3G iPhone will make its bow,” which, of course, puts the kibosh on his belief that Microsoft will be Macworld Expo’s headliner. Yager also thinks that we might “see a hint of the iPhone/iPod Touch software development kit (SDK) that Apple plans to deliver in February.”
Full article here.
I think it’s fair to assume Microsoft will get a bit of “stage time” at Macworld. They make one of the most important pieces of software for the platform! I mean, besides iLife, what else comes closer than Office in terms of Mac market saturation? And iLife is BUNDLED.
its 2008, and there is still no working full version of Outlook for anthing other than Windows.
F Microsoft and all the IT folks that demand users use windows by choosing Exchange
“It’s been four years since Office for Mac, the one piece of software that every professional Mac owner must have, has felt its creator’s touch.”
I don’t agree, ever since I installed iWork, I have yet to open MS Office on my Mac. In fact, I am thinking about trashing it.
3G iPhone? As much as I’d like it, it’s about 3-6 months too early for that. We won’t see that til the Asian roll-out begins in the Spring. We may see new iPhone software and a 16GB version, which will be a essentially a footnote unless Steve decides to talk SDK.
MDN don’t be surprised if Steve brings an Microsoft exec out on stage.
Sure we’ll see a new Mac or two or three. But the full line-up revamp that Yager hopes for is just overboard.
MS Office isn’t anywhere on my things to buy list – I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I speak for more than just myself.
I use office about once a month. I can’t justify spending the HUGE amount of money for that software that MS charges. I’ll make do without the update.
It might happen. Remember Motorola’s headlining a previous Macworld. A lot of hype about the ROKR being compatible with iTunes. While Motorola displayed its product, Jobs just stood in the background. When Motorola was done, Jobs pulled out the Nano and Motorola was done.
The same thing could happen with Microsoft. Gates could come and show off the wonders of Office for the first hour. Afterwards, Jobs reveals the Apple Teleportation device or more likely, the Apple Music Label. Either one would have the same effect.
“must have”? I use Word at work and it makes me want to blow my brains out it sucks so bad.
If the best thing about the new Office suit is the features it stole from iWork, I don’t see why it would be the “Headliner” at the event, it just don’t make no sense.
Yager’s been around a long time, and has covered the Mac when most others were shunning it. I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss what he says in an offhand way, even if he proves to not be totally correct.
Unless Office has a complete rewrite, not just an upgrade, it will soon follow the Microsoft course and be swept away
No one needs the dinosaur MS Office.
Only the smallest parts of Office 2008 are Objective-C, 99% of that monstrosity is Carbon.
*flush*
I think one thing these pundits that are talking about the “inevitability” of Office 2008 adoption on the Mac are forgetting is that it’s an entirely new product.
The theory goes that Office is “familiar” and once made available, looking at a 100% adoption rate. The reality is that Office 2008 users will have to take classes to use the thing it’s so different from the last version.
The factor no one seems to be considering is that if you have to learn a whole new way of doing things, then one can as easily learn the “iWork way” as the “MS Office” way.
Where I work, we will have to have training classes etc. for the Office rollout so we are intending to include iWork tutorials as well. In May we will be reading articles about how the Mac Office adoption was “a lot slower than expected.”
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Mel Gross: Seems like you covered all the bases there bro’. Nice going.
ChrissyOne: I don’t know about you… is that Seattle rain getting you waterlogged, or are we on different wavelengths, babe?
“…Office for Mac, the one piece of software that every professional Mac owner must have…”
Oh yeah, I am a professional user and I don’t use office at all. My business has been running for years with iWork, Billings and Adobe.
Headline at MacWorld will be the early release of the SDK for the iPhone, the dropping of the VGA port in new macs in favor of a Display Port. New monitors that have the display port and that are touch screens.
Oh, and a new ultra light laptop that will blow everyone away.
Did anyone mention that Microsoft is the last developer on planet Earth to release a universal binary version?
Was M$ on stage last year? I think it has been a couple of expos since Ho was on stage to bore us with M$ products.
Time for Steve to suck up a little and let them on stage again.
I usually agree with Yager, but not this time. Word has never been my daily WP. While I like Pages, I’m still using my trusty AppleWorks because…
…it still has features that Pages doesn’t have, like mail merge.
…formatting and adding pictures in Word is a pain in the a@#
…what other WP has a spreadsheet, database, draw, & paint modules all linked together?
I use Word about once a month to open a document from some dumb fool who still uses that clunky bloatware.
There was a tobacco shop on the Ave when I was a student in Seattle many moons ago. Signs in the window: “We have cigarettes.” “You want!” “On sale! On sale! ” The thing is, I did want, and badly.
iWork is just not advanced enough. Even for high school and college students, Pages does not have enough going for it. Though I do not like Microsoft Office, I have realized there is no alternative at the moment that supplies as advanced and useful features.
Yes, it’s a dinosaur and it’s terrible, but unfortunately, for now there is nothing better, something I am incredibly disappointed by constantly.
(Can you even make mailing labels in pages?)
I have some spreadsheets that demand Excel, unless I re-engineer them.
Other than that, I haven’t started Word or Powerpoint to produce a document in anger for well over two years and the documents that my consultancy produces specifically mention Pages and Apple’s £55.00 iWork ’08 on the back cover.
We will not be purchasing MS Office 2008 until our customers demand it, and we’re trying to ensure they never do.
Anthony writes…Yes, it’s a dinosaur and it’s terrible, but unfortunately, for now there is nothing better, something I am incredibly disappointed by constantly.
Yes Anthony, there is something far better. Apple’s discarded AppleWorks program is STILL superior to Word. By the way mailing labels are a snap in AppleWorks, as is any other project.
“the documents that my consultancy produces specifically mention Pages and Apple’s £55.00 iWork ’08 on the back cover.”
Wow, you just won fanboy of the day
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My rumour is that the iPhone SDK will be released early at MW 08 (not Feb 08) and the keynote will be recapping the great financials and showing off some of the cool apps they have created and are ready for release.