Mac Office Goes Scholastic, Pro

Today, Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) introduced two new versions of Mac Office, one of which that offers important parity with a similar Windows offering.

The new versions also mean a lower price for Office v. X for Mac Standard Edition, which drops to $399 from $499. New, at that higher price, is Office v. X for Mac Professional Edition. On Windows, Office Professional means more applications, such as the addition of Access. Here, buyers pick up Virtual PC for the Mac 6.1 with Windows XP Professional. For Mac users that also need access to Windows, the bundle is a pretty good deal. As a standalone version, Virtual PC 6.1 with XP Pro costs $249.

The most-important change is the addition of Office v. X for Mac Student and Teacher Edition, which will sell for $149. That version will appeal to some Apple education customers and offers a lower-price entry point that is similar to Office for Windows.

Some perspective: Microsoft started offering a heavily, discounted Office XP Student and Teacher Edition in October 2001. The $149 product, which was available for as low as $110 during the 2002 back-to-school buying season, shot of the shelves. It is my opinion that, in part, Microsoft brought out the low-cost Student and Teacher Edition as a means of offering consumers a cheaper alternative to Office without cutting overall Office prices. In October 2001, at many retailers, Office XP Standard sold for more than $400 compared to a typical $129 for the student-teacher product. It's not difficult to discern the appeal of the lower price. The major differences between scholastic and standard: The Student and Teacher Edition technically only could be used by students or teachers and the version could not be upgraded.

A few months back, Microsoft announced there would be six Office 2003 versions, which included a new Student and Teacher Edition. With that version, Microsoft relaxed licensing so that technically anyone in a household with a student or teacher could use the product; that just made legal what was likely common use of the software anyway. Microsoft also opened up upgrades, so that a student buying the scholastic version could later move to the regular Office version at a lower price (By the way, the Mac scholastic version is non-upgradable). In a nice touch, Microsoft also added two additional licenses, so that the Office 2003 teacher-student version could be installed on and activated on up to three computers in a home.

Mac Office does not use product activation, but the software does check for duplicate versions on a network. The mechanism issues a warning and then prevents the second version from launching. While Microsoft hasn’t discussed its Macintosh product activation plans, I wouldn’t be the least surprised to see the technology appear in the next Mac Office version.

Regarding that next version, Microsoft is decidedly silent on its release. The company shipped Mac v. X in November 2001, a scant year following the release of its predecessor. During 1999-2001, Microsoft’s Macintosh development was on a roll, under then-MacBU general manager Kevin Browne. In fact, MacBU released products with distinguishing features that demonstrated deep understanding of the Macintosh community. For example, Office 2001 unveiled many nifty features--floating formatting palates, sophisticated categories and e-mail tracking are among my favorites--some of which that are just now appearing in Office 2003.

Since 2002’s end of a five-year development commitment to Apple and Browne’s departure, MacBU’s development efforts seem slower. True, the division has bulked up MSN Messenger and released MSN for Mac OS X. But those product categories face stiff competition on the Mac, giving Microsoft some good reasons for continued development there. At the same time, Microsoft has ceased development of Mac Internet Explorer. The company contends the decision came in the wake of Apple’s Safari browser development. But Microsoft hadn’t seriously updated Mac IE for several years anyway--or than porting to Mac OS X. IE development is winding down on the PC, too.

This year’s big announcement was the July release of 17 new templates for PowerPoint, another product facing competition; in this case, from Apple’s Keynote. The new templates are a distant echo of MacBU’s rapid-fire development days just two years ago.

Still, Microsoft deserves credit for, last week, releasing an update that lets Entourage connect to Exchange Server. The connector would benefit companies running an Exchange Server and Office on Macs and Windows. Of course, Entourage competes with Apple Mail.

It’s my speculation that MacBU was too successful developing good Macintosh software, much with features not available to Windows users. Innovative Mac development isn't necessarily the best tact at a company that makes the majority of profts from Windows products. Mr. Browne’s sudden three-month sabbatical and return to a different Microsoft division last year marked a change in MacBU management and direction. The transition to new owners, so to speak, is still under way. Maybe that eventually will mean a renewed Macintosh emphasis whenever the next version of Mac Office ships. However, I believe Microsoft's Mac glory days are over, which could give Apple and other Macintosh software developers more room to innovate. That could be a very good development for the Mac community.

Posted by Joe Wilcox at August 12, 2003 09:39 AM