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MS could gain a lot of goodwill by doing this. Office is a great app. I like Outlook/ Exchange on the PC side very much.

Only if MS is willing to bring Exchange to OSX server, they show that they are willing to give their competitors a fair treat, if not Apple should take precautions.
 
The good news in this announcement

Hopefully the project management software will be compatible / identical to MS Project. We've got Omnigraffle Pro 3 to work with Visio now, but being left out in the cold right now re: Project sucks.
 
From what I've heard, the MBU is one of the more solid profit centers at Microsoft. Its large enough of a profit that its worth maintaining.
 
Originally posted by matthew24
MS could gain a lot of goodwill by doing this. Office is a great app. I like Outlook/ Exchange on the PC side very much.

Only if MS is willing to bring Exchange to OSX server, they show that they are willing to give their competitors a fair treat, if not Apple should take precautions.

EXCHANGE CLIENT TALK:
that's exactly it - their "exchange compatible" update to Entourage this year was a JOKE - probably the biggest disappointment of the year for me.

if they REALLY integrate Entourage into Outlook (at least up to par with Outlook 2001 in OS9) - i'd buy dozens of copies for our organization ALONE.

c'mon M$ - time to do the right thing.
 
I always thought that Microsoft only had two profitable products: Windows and Office. (Too bad just about every computer on the planet has both of them and they aren't exactly cheap).

Office for Mac is still a good revenue stream for them as it has a bigger market share on the Mac than Windows, although admitedly the actual numbers of Mac users pale into insignificance.

An update must be coming because my student and teacher copy of Office specifically says: "Not eligable for updates" meaning I'll be screwed when they 'update' the file format :p :mad: :D
 
MS will continue to develop Office for Mac because ...

... I think that Bill Gates is smart enough that he keeps at least one Mac around running the most current operating system. He needs to have a compatible version of Office so that he can read his employees' files.:p
 
Originally posted by bitfactory
EXCHANGE CLIENT TALK:
that's exactly it - their "exchange compatible" update to Entourage this year was a JOKE - probably the biggest disappointment of the year for me.

if they REALLY integrate Entourage into Outlook (at least up to par with Outlook 2001 in OS9) - i'd buy dozens of copies for our organization ALONE.

c'mon M$ - time to do the right thing.

Here, here!!! A complete joke indeed. Though I'm doubtful that we'll ever see a "native" Outlook client for Mac OS X.
 
Originally posted by dr_lha
MS's continued support of Office on the Mac is a bit puzzling...I stil expect MS to cut Mac off at the knees sometime in the future, hopefully by then there will be a OSX native port of OpenOffice.

Here's my unfounded speculation: Microsoft would like to discontinue Mac Office, but if they did Apple would swiftly release their own office suite *and* OS X for x86. Microsoft doesn't want this; they'd probably win, but there's a small chance it could crack their monopoly, and there's no reason for them to risk it.

Conversely, Apple doesn't want to incur Microsoft's wrath, so they'll keep iOffice under wraps unless absolutely necessary.
 
I’m personally more interested to see what announcements will be made regarding Office 11. I’m running the latest Office v.X right now, and it’s not that I need Office 11, but it’s always nice to see updates for products like this, and nice to see that Microsoft isn’t leaving Apple “out in the cold” after striking up this agreement with them – it would not surprise me at all for MS to back out on a deal!

I use Mail, so I don’t care about Entourage, but I do use Excel and Word extensively, so it will be nice to see what kind of updates are announced.
 
Oh, and one other thing – I really hope they change the filename lengths in the next update for Office. Why on Earth did they make 32 chars the max length for a filename in the first place??? That’s a pain whenever I’m copying over PC files to my Mac.
 
Originally posted by johnnyjibbs
I always thought that Microsoft only had two profitable products: Windows and Office.
The Windows desktop and Office divisions account for 86% of MS's profits. The Server division makes the rest. The remaining four divisions are all unprofitable right now.

I am not sure under which division the Mac business unit falls.
 
It’ll be great if these updates are announced @ MWSF. Hopefully there is going to be a good mix of software and hardware announcements. But I wonder how many announcements are reasonable to expect – after all, there are rumors of a new iMovie, Office 11, VPC 7, PowerMac speed boosts, LCDs, xServes, iPod updates, and then the more speculative ones like G5 iMacs, G5 PowerBooks... Jobs can’t possibly announce all of these things, can he? ;)

I’m thinking more like 4 or 5 announcements, 2 or 3 of those being major ones, are more likely @ MWSF. But more is always welcome!
 
Office on a Mac

Sure Microsoft office for X is a nie peice of software with potential, just like it has on the PC's, but MS needs to finish te products they deliver on a mac, not the same sloppy programmign style they are up to on PC's.

For instance why is it, that the office version for mac runs far worse on a Mac, than it's counterpart on a PC (see the speed tests in macworl/pc world magazines..)

Perhaps they will sort that out in the next version, as for functionality, don't need more, there is too much already that half of the time I can't find what I am looking for,(both on Windows and mac versions) and perhaps we would be better of if apple would release a pro version of its AppleWorks program suite....

:rolleyes:
 
yay now i can't wait for MWSF .. especially for MSN Messenger, which I hope would at last have voice and video .. already got office and vpc, but wouldn't mind the updates ..
 
Originally posted by dr_lha
MS's continued support of Office on the Mac is a bit puzzling as I bet the return on their investment for developing it is tiny compared to the Windows version.
A couple of years ago I read that Microsoft made more profit with each Mac sold than they did with each PC sold.

Depending on how development dollars are assigned, I could see Office for the Mac having a higher profit margin than Office for Windows.

On a Machiavellian note, I can see Office for Mac as a means to keep antitrust lawyers at bay.
 
Re: Office on a Mac

Originally posted by k2k koos


For instance why is it, that the office version for mac runs far worse on a Mac, than it's counterpart on a PC (see the speed tests in macworl/pc world magazines..)

:rolleyes:

Probably for the same reason QuickTime is a POS on Windows but is very nice on Mac OS. Or how Media Player for Mac sucks monkey spunk but can amaze a Mac user when it’s seen to run at twice the speed on a PC. No company wants to give their competitor an advantage.
 
Re: Microsoft Office and Virtual PC at MWSF 2004?

Originally posted by Macrumors
Due to changes in the G5 architecture, prior versions of Virtual PC have remained incompatible with the PowerMac G5s.
During the recent articles regarding MS going with IBM/PowerPC for the next XBox, I read that the next XBox would be able to run the old games through an emulation mode.

Perhaps the VPC is part of that plan.

And as part of the XBox/IBM deal, maybe IBM agreed to make changes to the 970 to make it easier to support VPC.
 
Originally posted by ~Shard~
Oh, and one other thing – I really hope they change the filename lengths in the next update for Office. Why on Earth did they make 32 chars the max length for a filename in the first place??? That’s a pain whenever I’m copying over PC files to my Mac.
Yes! My pet hate with Office! There is no reason for this other than to just piss us Mac users off!
 
Originally posted by jared_kipe
Has everyone forgotten about Appleworks?

What's Appleworks? J/K


Another another note, about damn time I can use Virtual PC on my G5.
 
story updated with more details

Updated: Mac4ever.com (French) reported on December 1st an interview with a Microsoft representative at MacExpo in London. In their video interview, the rep felt that Virtual PC for G5 would likely be released in February 2004 and Microsoft Office 2003 for Mac would be released in the Summer of 2004.
 
Originally posted by jared_kipe
Has everyone forgotten about Appleworks?

Yes, and rightly so...

I hope this is true, and I hope they bring Entourage to the same level of functionality as Outlook XP or 2003. I have a friend in the market for a laptop, and the only thing holding him back from buying an iBook (which is $700 cheaper than a comparably featured Inspiron) is his allegiance to Outlook as he manages huge contact databases for the student orgs he's involved in.
 
Microsoft sets apple back...

Is it just me, or does this sound funny to you too:

Microsoft Office 2003 for Mac would be released in the Summer of 2004

So in the year 2004, they will release the 2003 version of a product.

Wow... how groundbreaking! (he types sarcatiscally).
Maybe it'll come w/ a free betamax tape and some New Coke!

Yeesh...
 
Re: The good news in this announcement

Originally posted by Hawthorne
Hopefully the project management software will be compatible / identical to MS Project. We've got Omnigraffle Pro 3 to work with Visio now, but being left out in the cold right now re: Project sucks.
I would also like to see Project for Mac since I use the PC version quite a bit. However, I think the words Project Manager should really have been Project Gallery. The Project Gallery opens when you launch Office for Mac and is also available from the File menu of any Office app. From the Gallery you can choose a document template, create a new blank document, or open an existing document.
 
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