Microsoft to launch Office for Mac 2011 in late October
Microsoft announced Monday that Office for Mac 2011 will arrive at the end of October with a lower price per installation for all editions, starting at $119.
The latest version of Microsoft Office will be available in more than 100 countries at the end of October. Two editions will be available for purchase: Office for Mac Home and Student 2011, starting at $119, and Office for Mac Home and Business 2011, starting at $199.
Microsoft said the new pricing and edition options available with Office for Mac 2011 are closer to the software's Windows counterpart. In addition, customers who purchase Office 2008 for Mac will be able to upgrade to Office 2011 at no cost through the Microsoft Office for Mac Technology Guarantee Program.
"We develop Office for Mac to give you the tools to create great-looking and compatible documents -- with options to pick the right edition for your Mac needs," said Eric Wilfrid, general manager with the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft. "More than ever before, Office 2011 brings the familiar productivity tools and features of Microsoft Office to a suite of applications that work great on the Mac."
The 32-bit software suite will be available in 13 launguages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. Two new languages were also added to the mix for this year's update: Polish and Russian.
Customers who buy Office 2008 for Mac between Aug. 1, 2010 and Nov. 30, 2010 at Microsoft or an authorized reseller are qualified for a free upgrade to the latest version. Customers can register online and must submit a form with their product key and dated sales receipt by Dec. 31, 2010.
Starting at $119, Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger. A Family Pack will also be available for $149, with three installs.
For $199, Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger, and also adds Outlook into the mix. The return of Outlook will be an application written from the ground up in Cocoa for Mac OS X. A family pack for the Business edition of Office for Mac 2011 will run $279, with two installs available. Home and Student customers can also upgrade to the higher-end product through the online upgrade functionality.
Finally, authorized academic stores will also sell a discounted version of the suite, dubbed Microsoft Office for Mac Academic 2011, for higher education students, staff and faculty. For $99, users get one installation including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Messenger and Outlook.
For more, see AppleInsider's extensive coverage of Office for Mac 2011:
Office for Mac 2011 to feature co-authoring, ribbon interface
Road to Office 2011 for Mac: A New Hope
Road to Office 2011: New looks, support for Exchange, VBA
Microsoft officially unveils key Office 201 for Mac features
The latest version of Microsoft Office will be available in more than 100 countries at the end of October. Two editions will be available for purchase: Office for Mac Home and Student 2011, starting at $119, and Office for Mac Home and Business 2011, starting at $199.
Microsoft said the new pricing and edition options available with Office for Mac 2011 are closer to the software's Windows counterpart. In addition, customers who purchase Office 2008 for Mac will be able to upgrade to Office 2011 at no cost through the Microsoft Office for Mac Technology Guarantee Program.
"We develop Office for Mac to give you the tools to create great-looking and compatible documents -- with options to pick the right edition for your Mac needs," said Eric Wilfrid, general manager with the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft. "More than ever before, Office 2011 brings the familiar productivity tools and features of Microsoft Office to a suite of applications that work great on the Mac."
The 32-bit software suite will be available in 13 launguages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. Two new languages were also added to the mix for this year's update: Polish and Russian.
Customers who buy Office 2008 for Mac between Aug. 1, 2010 and Nov. 30, 2010 at Microsoft or an authorized reseller are qualified for a free upgrade to the latest version. Customers can register online and must submit a form with their product key and dated sales receipt by Dec. 31, 2010.
Starting at $119, Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger. A Family Pack will also be available for $149, with three installs.
For $199, Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011 includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Messenger, and also adds Outlook into the mix. The return of Outlook will be an application written from the ground up in Cocoa for Mac OS X. A family pack for the Business edition of Office for Mac 2011 will run $279, with two installs available. Home and Student customers can also upgrade to the higher-end product through the online upgrade functionality.
Finally, authorized academic stores will also sell a discounted version of the suite, dubbed Microsoft Office for Mac Academic 2011, for higher education students, staff and faculty. For $99, users get one installation including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Messenger and Outlook.
For more, see AppleInsider's extensive coverage of Office for Mac 2011:
Office for Mac 2011 to feature co-authoring, ribbon interface
Road to Office 2011 for Mac: A New Hope
Road to Office 2011: New looks, support for Exchange, VBA
Microsoft officially unveils key Office 201 for Mac features
Comments
In the interest of fairness, I will say that the Mac version of Office has really improved over that last couple of years. Now, I don't puke a little into my mouth every time I look at.
Apple.dk doesn't even offer Adobe lightroom - I guess they're trying to save Aperture in a similar fashion.
Those prices seem very competitive.
That lower price tells me that Apple's pricing pressure with iWork ($79) is starting to scare Mafia$oft.
In the interest of fairness, I will say that the Mac version of Office has really improved over that last couple of years. Now, I don't puke a little into my mouth every time I look at.
Finally the prices make a bit more sense. The Office for business Mac users was outrageously priced... And the home and student edition "force bundled" 3 home/student licenses so individual users ended up paying more.
Certainly iWork has put some strong pressure on Microsoft. The hideousness that is PowerPoint laid bare by the elegance of Keynote.
However, more affordable Office = more Mac purchases = more Office for Mac purchases.
Now when can we ever get rid of Office completely, that is another question.
It's pretty lame that on the Apple store website (at least in Denmark), MS Office only shows up if you specifically search for it - if you just browse under the Productivity category, only iWork shows up. Not only that, but the Home/Student version is about 50% more expensive than it is at any other retailer...
Apple.dk doesn't even offer Adobe lightroom - I guess they're trying to save Aperture in a similar fashion.
Must be an issue in Denmark because the U.S. Apple Store shows all versions of Office (together and separate).
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/hom...co=MTY2MTY4NTQ
Strangely though, Lightroom is absent from the store but I didn't look everywhere.
The new pricing for the 2010 version seems like less of a good deal to me. Unless street prices will be lower than this?
Bring on Visio and MS Project!
Any chance this (might just) tie in with the rumored back to school release of iWork???
Rumour has it that there is iLife 2010 and iWork 2010 in the pipes and September/October is a good guess on the release date. Rumour also has it that there is an iPad update in the works for the same time period.
Since iWork is already on the iPad (albeit in beta form), it would seem a no brainer that we are in for an killer update of iWork for the PC as well as mobile, sometimes in the next couple of months. I don't see how they can get away with the feeble productivity software situation on the iPad for very long, and I expect that exigency to drive faster revisions of iWork than we are used to.
The new pricing for Office Mac 2011 seems like less of a good deal to me. Unless street prices are expected to be lower.
I'm looking forward to it... I do a lot of work at home on my Mac for work, and although compatibility isn't really an issue, learning and being profficient in two very different versions of Office is taxing.
Bring on Visio and MS Project!
Me too, I don't find compatibility too much of a problem between iWork and Office, but personally I prefer Office. It's probably a familiarity thing, since I've been using Office for 15 years now, but I actually find iWork more clunky.
Plus, I think Excel is far superior to Numbers.
Those prices seem very competitive.
Not when i can get an office suite for free. Office is super expensive, bloated, software designed to lock you into the proprietary, patent encumbered, Microsoft file formats thereby locking in continuous super expensive upgrades ($$$ for Microsoft). No thanks. You might have money to burn, but i do not.
An extra $80 to get outlook? A bit steep....
It's so they can address both home and business markets with the same suite.
Outlook is Office's "killer app" for business, so business have to buy the expensive package.
Home users don't need it as much, so they are able to offer cheaper prices to be competitive in that market as well.
Not when i can get an office suite for free. Office is super expensive, bloated, software designed to lock you into the proprietary, patent encumbered, Microsoft file formats thereby locking in continuous super expensive upgrades ($$$ for Microsoft). No thanks. You might have money to burn, but i do not.
Microsoft Office supports OpenDocument Text, Spreadsheet and Presentation. I agree with you on the price though. I wouldn't pay that much if all I'm doing is writing some letter or creating a pamphlet at home.
$119 in competition with a product that students get for $55 with nothing extra, everyone else gets for $79. Add an extra $80 to get an app with no better featureset than one that all Mac users get for free. Sounds real competitive.
$119 is too expensive for home use. $50 per license in the home pack is better but still on the expensive side. The $80 is more than worth it for business that use the extra features in Outlook though.
Not when i can get an office suite for free. Office is super expensive, bloated, software designed to lock you into the proprietary, patent encumbered, Microsoft file formats thereby locking in continuous super expensive upgrades ($$$ for Microsoft). No thanks. You might have money to burn, but i do not.
How is that different from an iPhone, or iTunes, or iLife... or Google... or anything else with a market majority?
Seriously, the MS bashng is a bit 20th century guys. Office is almost ubiquitous and people who say what you say, don't depend on it. This is a good thing, and $119 is great value for 4 powerful applications.
Those prices seem very competitive.
Yeah, I'm going to have to buy that instead of iWork. It'll save me a lot of confusion and conversion problems. Sorry Apple.
Yeah, I'm going to have to buy that instead of iWork. It'll save me a lot of confusion and conversion problems. Sorry Apple.
I'd wait for iWork '11...