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Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Monitor - Office 2007 really is 2007:
Today, Microsoft said that, like Windows Vista, Office 2007 will launch in early 2007. The company reiterated commitment to finish the product before the end of year. As with Windows Vista, Microsoft plans to make Office 2007 available to businesses subscribing to volume licensing before the end of 2006.
Office 2007 was always tipped to be finished before Vista in 2006 and while there were rumors of some delays, it had been expected in 4Q2006. It’s unclear whether there were further delays and/or the idea of a joint launch with Vista was just too enticing to the marketers. Wilcox analyzes why this is likely a smart marketing move. Mary Jo Foley has more at Microsoft Watch in Can Microsoft Make the Trains Run on Time?
Update: We’re unlikely to ever know the full story, but Ina Fried at CNET has the official Microsoft spin:
“We have, however, decided to coordinate with Windows Vista to hit retail store shelves in January 2007,” a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail to CNET News.com. “We believe this will provide an easier experience for consumers and retailers alike.”
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March 24th, 2006 at 8:35 AM
[...] As everyone comes to terms with the shock of the dual schedule slips of Windows Vista and Office 2007, more stories are surfacing about current state of Vista. [...]
March 24th, 2006 at 9:57 AM
[...] Microsoft has issued a press release officially confirming yesterday’s report of Office 2007 slipping to early 2007: Yesterday, Microsoft Corp. confirmed the timeline for release and availability of its 2007 Microsoft® Office system. The company remains on track to complete work on the 2007 Microsoft Office system in October of this year and is planning to make the product available to the business customers through the volume licensing program in October 2006. Retail and OEM availability of the product are scheduled to coincide with the retail and OEM availability of the Windows Vista™ operating system in January 2007. Filed under Office, Office 2007, OS - Client, Windows Vista, Microsoft Listen to this article [Permalink] [...]
June 29th, 2006 at 6:47 PM
[...] Microsoft Office has always been held up as the epitome of Microsoft development order as opposed to client operating system development where things are much more exciting. Perhaps some reconsideration is in order as Microsoft today announced a schedule slip for Office 2007: “Based on internal testing and the beta 2 feedback around product performance, we are revising our development schedule to deliver the 2007 system release by the end of year 2006, with broad general availability in early 2007,” a Microsoft representative said in an e-mail. … It said in March that the product would be ready by this October, but said at the time it was delaying the retail availability until January, in order to jointly launch the product with Windows Vista. The plan was to have a big joint launch and marketing campaign, but that’s apparently off unless Vista is similarly delayed. “We are assessing the impact this timing change will have to our specific launch plans,” a Windows unit representative said, adding that Microsoft is “still targeting January for general consumer availability.” Heck, the Vista folks probably wouldn’t mind a delay too, but there are some other people who would: Gartner analyst Michael Silver noted that the delay in Office could hit some businesses hard, particularly those that signed volume license contracts in late 2003. Such Enterprise Agreement or Software Assurance contracts offer, among other things, the right to any new versions of the product that come out over a period of time, typically three years. [...]