Microsoft News Tracker

In January, Microsoft’s MAC Business Unit (BU) promised that Office 2008 for the Mac would ship in 2H2007. Today that date slipped to a plan for a launch at Macworld in mid-January 2008 with general availability in 1Q2008. The delay is blamed on quality issues related to the new XML document formats introduced with Office 2007 for Windows and Apple’s switch to Intel processors.

Mac fans are typically grumpy about what seems to be second class treatment, but here’s an interesting factoid (from the second link above):

Sales of Office for Macs rose about 72 percent from 2001 to 2006, compared with an increase of about 18 percent for Windows versions. Sales of the Mac versions made up about 20 percent of dollars spent on Office at U.S. retail stores and Web sites in 2006, up from 4 percent in 2001.

That’s probably not enough to banish all conspiracy and neglect theories, but it certainly isn’t chump change.

Steve Jobs may get the spotlight, but Microsoft also had an announcement at Macworld yesterday - It’s Coming: Mac BU Announces Intent to Deliver Office 2008 for Mac:

Microsoft Corp.’s Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) today revealed at Macworld Conference & Expo 2007 the news Mac fans have been waiting to hear: A new version of Office for Mac is on its way. The Mac BU announced its intent to deliver the first Universal version of Office for Mac for PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs — Microsoft® Office 2008 for Mac. Scheduled to be available in the second half of 2007, Office 2008 for Mac will allow Mac users to work smarter and more efficiently with new and enhanced tools that are simple, intuitive and easily discovered.

More details including some Mac-first, Mac-only features by following the link.

As for the grumbling over the perceived delay in providing Mac Office converters for Office 2007 file formats, Microsoft’s Roz Ho addressed that and other topics in a Q&A:

We’re building file-format converters that will allow Mac users to access Office Open XML Format following the general availability of the 2007 Office system at the end of January. We will release a public beta version of the converters in the spring of 2007, and final versions of the converters will ship six to eight weeks after Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is available. For now, we recommend that Mac users advise their friends and colleagues using the 2007 Office system to save their documents as a “Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97-2003 Document” (.doc, .xls, .ppt) to ensure the documents can be easily shared across platforms.

That still seems to be a pretty large gap.

Microsoft released a beta of Windows Live Search Books (formerly MSN Book Search) which indexes out-of-copyright books and a new beta of Windows Live Search Academic (formerly Windows Live Academic Search) which indexes academic journals.

Also in Windows Live Land, Windows Live Custom Domains got an update as did Windows Live Expo and the beta of Windows Live Connection Center Wi-Fi.

Despite the recent demise of Google Answers, Amazon has launched a new question and answer service:

Check out Amazon’s newest service, Askville.

… This is a “questions & answer” site similar to Yahoo, Yedda, AnswerBag, the recently departed Google Answers and even the rarely mentioned Microsoft QnA.

Users turned grumpy over perceived delays in Office 2007 compatibility for Mac Office and Windows Mobile.

Jim Allchin explains Vista Power Management at incredible length since Microsoft has “enhanced” the operating system’s “power off” switch.

Microsoft, HP and other tech firms plan to push for a new US data privacy law next year.

Another strange Zune ad. Don’t worry, you likely won’t have to restrain yourself from filling your shopping cart with Zunes, but you may want a cookie.

Alcatel may be suing Microsoft but they are still jointly selling IPTV.

We’ve already heard about Vista and Internet Explorer 7 staying on their current schedule and being nearly ready for release. Now comes word that Office 2007 is just about there too:

Microsoft will close down beta testing of Office 2007 in two weeks and send the code to manufacturing by the end of October.

On Oct. 25, Microsoft will close the Office Preview Web site and remove the beta from its download servers. The Office 2007 beta has been available to public testers since May.

…

With no additional builds planned, Microsoft said it would release the suite to manufacturing — what the Redmond, Wash. developer dubs “RTM” — “in a few weeks” according to e-mail sent to testers. On Tuesday, a company spokesperson declined to specify the exact date, saying only that “we are on track to have Office in the hands of business customers by the end of this calendar year.”

Microsoft Office for the Mac always lags the Windows version, but there were rumors this week that there would be additional delay for Office 2007.  The rumor is refuted at Microsoft’s Office for Mac Team Blog:

Over the last few days, some Mac sites have been reporting that the Universal Binary version of Office for Mac (officially unnamed, but currently code-named Office 12) has been delayed, but there is no delay or deviation from our development schedule. We’re hitting our milestones, checking in our features, and making the move to Intel as planned. We’ve totally moved from Code Warrior to Xcode, so we’ve crested that hill. We usually ship 6 - 8 months after the availability of Office for Windows so we can do compatibility testing. This has been our shipping cycle for ages, and we’re right on track.

Last week’s Apple WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) was light on news pertaining to Microsoft aside from the usual Apple snarking about Vista. There’s nothing more likely than that to excite geeky passions and while it’s not out of place at an event dedicated to rallying the developer troops, perhaps more relevant were the following:

Apple has completed the transition to Intel hardware with new Mac Pro desktop systems and new quad core Xeon Xserve servers. More important, they “are offered at price points well below the PowerPC-based systems they replace. ” Apple also cut prices on their Cinema displays. They’re still a flea bite on the Wintel market, but they’re trying.

Of course, the shipping hardware may have changed, but Apple still has the baggage of existing users on the old Power PC Macs and existing Power PC software as well. In that regard, Microsoft had a mix of news for Apple users. First, Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit reported progress on converting their Power PC software to Universal binaries that will run on both hardware architectures:

“Tens of millions of lines of code have been 100 percent transitioned to Xcode on the road to a Universal version of Office for Mac. The Mac BU also will provide free, downloadable converters to allow users of current versions of Office for Mac to read the new Microsoft Office Open XML formats following the availability of Office for Windows,” wrote a Microsoft spokesperson.

Microsoft Messenger for Mac 6.0, a new version of Microsoft’s instant messaging application, is coming “later this year,” according to the company. It will include features such as federation with Yahoo! Messenger, customized emoticons and spell check. Users will also be able to display personal messages or what song’s playing in iTunes.

Microsoft is also developing a new version of its Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client software, which enables Mac users to access Windows PCs on their network. “The next version of RDC will be released as a fully supported free product and details on this release will be shared closer to launch,” stated Microsoft.

There’s still no timeframe for release of the new Office for Mac. Microsoft also completed the assessment they had promised in January and decided not to provide an Intel version of Virtual PC for the Mac:

What has been a foregone conclusion for many Mac users has finally been confirmed: Microsoft’s Virtual PC is dead. In a statement provided to BetaNews Monday, the company said its Macintosh Business Unit has decided not to go forward with a version of the software native to the Intel platform.

“Developing a high-quality virtualization solution, such as Virtual PC, for the Intel-based Mac is similar to creating a version 1.0 release due to how closely the product integrates with Mac hardware,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

She added that the need for virtualization should be satisfied through alternatives provided by Apple and others.

That’s certainly true enough. In addition to Apple’s Boot Camp dual booting support, VMware announced they were bringing their virtualization technology to Mac OS X, as previously had startup Parallels. Another startup named TransGaming has developed a “portability engine” for Windows games called Cider that is claimed to have been adopted by a number of top tier games publishers to provide Mac compatibility.