Microsoft to release long-awaited Office for Mac update in 2014 - report
Microsoft is reportedly preparing to ship a new version of its Office for Mac productivity suite later this year in what would be the first major update to the software in nearly four years.
Thorsten H?bschen, the Microsoft executive who oversees Office in Germany, revealed the software giant's plans at this week's CeBIT computer industry show in Hanover. German trade publication Computerwoche was first with the news.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft disbanded its Mac business unit soon after the most recent version of the suite, Office:Mac 2011, hit shelves in 2010. H?bschen said that internal reorganization at Microsoft has resulted in a renewed push for cross-platform versions of Office, and that the company was already speaking to enterprise customers about the new Mac edition.
Office for Mac's relative lack of updates compared to its Windows counterpart has caused concern among business users in recent years. Apple has completely revamped its competing iWork suite in the interim in what some have pegged as an effort to reduce Office's role as a killer app for Macs in the workplace.
There was no word from H?bschen on Microsoft's plans for a version of Office tailored for Apple's iOS, where it remains conspicuously absent. Microsoft insider Mary Jo Foley reported last month that an iPad edition was on the way, but others have indicated that Microsoft scrapped the idea as part of a strategy designed to entice users toward tablets running Windows.
Thorsten H?bschen, the Microsoft executive who oversees Office in Germany, revealed the software giant's plans at this week's CeBIT computer industry show in Hanover. German trade publication Computerwoche was first with the news.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft disbanded its Mac business unit soon after the most recent version of the suite, Office:Mac 2011, hit shelves in 2010. H?bschen said that internal reorganization at Microsoft has resulted in a renewed push for cross-platform versions of Office, and that the company was already speaking to enterprise customers about the new Mac edition.
Office for Mac's relative lack of updates compared to its Windows counterpart has caused concern among business users in recent years. Apple has completely revamped its competing iWork suite in the interim in what some have pegged as an effort to reduce Office's role as a killer app for Macs in the workplace.
There was no word from H?bschen on Microsoft's plans for a version of Office tailored for Apple's iOS, where it remains conspicuously absent. Microsoft insider Mary Jo Foley reported last month that an iPad edition was on the way, but others have indicated that Microsoft scrapped the idea as part of a strategy designed to entice users toward tablets running Windows.
Comments
Long-awaited...by whom?
Also... "Thorsten H?bschen"? I'd like to legally change my name to include random punctuation.
Unless Excel offers me a Monte Carlo simulation plug-in, I am unlikely to be interested in upgrading.
Paying a subscription to use basic-office programs in nothing short of extortion.
What is MicroSoft ? What is Office ?
Hear hear. Dog slow, on whatever Mac you run Excel on. And not even on 10k rows; it's dog slow on just 2,000 lines. Without any formulas! Go figure! (that's you MS; go figure)
I eagerly await a new version of Office. iWork is crap for my needs and I don't like that Mail can't get exchange mail pushed to it. The most frequent you get is to check each minute.
It may be slow and it may be from Microsoft but it's advanced functionality and it's wide adoption in business makes it (still) irreplaceable for serious business work.
Only if you equate mainstream, corporate as 'serious' business work. I consider my work serious and it is definitely business (well, its my business and it makes my money). But iWork will (in all likelihood) a 'power suite' with all the bells and whistles. When iWork came out I couldn't get my head around it. Now I love it and never use Office. It took a few years.
Long-awaited...by whom?
Business users it would seem. There are a lot of them out there and they don’t care about iWork, or Open Office, or whatever other workalike kludge is available. They want Office because that’s the way it’s always been done. Sad but true.
I eagerly await a new version of Office. iWork is crap for my needs and I don't like that Mail can't get exchange mail pushed to it. The most frequent you get is to check each minute.
the market bellweather of one ('my needs'). The other 100Million people who may or may not need Word/Excel/PPT/Entourage on their Mac probably have different criteria.
Microsoft not creating updated Mac versions, and releasing an iOS version are losing casual user when they buy their first iPad. If they get them hooked on office on the mac/ipad, there is a fighting chance for them to buy Windows, and maybe even a Surface. If not, the masses will leave Office, and and windows will evaporate, except for who think in VBA, and talk about the glory days like COBOL and FORTRAN programmers do now.
Dear Mister Microsoft Office Product Manager, Please Please Please do not make any more updates. Office 2007 stinks. Office 2010 stinks. And I hear Office 2013 stinks worst of them all. Please please please no more button, no more stupid bar. Please bring back the User Interface of Office 2003.
I wonder if they'll offer a cross-platform sales deal? As in, if you own Office for Windows, you automatically get a copy of Office for Mac too?
It may be slow and it may be from Microsoft but it's advanced functionality and it's wide adoption in business makes it (still) irreplaceable for serious business work.
iWork being free on new systems will help businesses stay off of Office.
Like all business users I don't personally pay for it...
BUT, and this is a big one, I need Visual Basic in Excel. That is why stepped over the previous version of Office to the current one, and that is why I won't be using Open Office or any other similar application. Lots of users are in the same position.