Publisher and Money for Mac/Next Version of Office

After reading through the archives on Google Groups, Publisher and
Money seem to be the most wanted programmes for OS X. I think that if
MacBU persuaded the rest of Microsoft to get these into Office 200x, it
would be smashing! Publisher is a becoming a must for me. I know Pages
from iWork is good but not as good as Publisher and can't read files.

Also, when is the next version due out? Will it be 2006 or 2007? What
sort of features will this have?

Thanks

Seb

Hi Seb,

The Mac Business Unit at Microsoft works more like an independent
company than you might expect. Essentially, they can make whatever they
want as long as they make a reasonable profit. It's not a matter of
MacBU persuading other parts of Microsoft to get these into Mac Office,
it's a matter of them deciding whether or not adding these products will
sell enough units and a price that will generate a profit.

There's another big change coming from Apple: Macs on Intel processors.
This is a big change for developers - maybe even as big or in some cases
bigger than going from OS9 to OSX. Expect the next new versions of all
the major programs (not just Microsoft) to be pretty much the same as
the previous versions but that they will run on Macs with Intel chips.

Like with OSX, expect a gradual introduction and gradual adoption of the
Intel-ready versions of your favorite software titles. I doubt Apple
will announce the whole line of computers has changed to Intel in one
swoop. Jobs pretty much said at his announcement about Intel chips that
the change will be incremental.

Developers can now get Macs with Intel chips to get software ready.
There are a variety of factors that will affect the ultimate timing of
the next versions of everything: chip availability, software
availability, market timing, and maybe the phase of the moon.

Expect a lot of hoopla when the first publicly available Macs with Intel
chips hit the market. At that time you will likely see at least
something from most major software developers.

Check the rumor sites for the latest scuttlebutt about timing. I
wouldn't want to hazard a guess.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP
MVP FAQ
<http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;mvpfaqs>


sebpayne DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
> After reading through the archives on Google Groups, Publisher and
> Money seem to be the most wanted programmes for OS X. I think that if
> MacBU persuaded the rest of Microsoft to get these into Office 200x, it
> would be smashing! Publisher is a becoming a must for me. I know Pages
> from iWork is good but not as good as Publisher and can't read files.
>
> Also, when is the next version due out? Will it be 2006 or 2007? What
> sort of features will this have?
>
> Thanks
>
> Seb
>