Microsoft, Apple make for strange partners on Office package

"Sometimes you get the comment, 'Hey, what is this?' " said Hoelter, who manages 75 people on Microsoft's Office for Mac team in Silicon Valley. "I say, 'Hey, we have a very successful business here.' "

The long-running collaboration between Apple and Microsoft - one of the oddest pairings in Silicon Valley - represents something of a technological detente between warring camps. Engineers from both companies regularly huddle so that Microsoft can create Macintosh versions of its popular productivity suite, Office. The latest version, Office for Mac 2011 - which includes all of the applications familiar to professionals, including Excel, PowerPoint and Word - is considered the best ever.

The biggest upgrade is a Mac version of Outlook, the ubiquitous e-mail software that is used by most companies. Before this release, Mac users had two options to use a Microsoft e-mail program: they could use special conversion software to run the Windows version of Outlook, or use Entourage, a much more limited Office for Mac e-mail client that was never popular with users. It was slow and lacked key functions many people rely on.

Now Apple fans can use a native Mac version of Outlook that can import information directly from Windows Outlook.

There are a host of other improvements, including faster-running programs and co-authoring capabilities that let users share documents and presentations over the Internet with almost anyone with access to a Web browser. The new Office for Mac's compatibility with Windows Office software means anything produced on a Mac using the new software can be viewed by others using Windows programs without a hint it was created on a Mac.

The new Mac Office version "takes away one of the big fights IT managers have used against the Mac - compatibility," said Barak Berkowitz, a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Mac user. Office for Mac 2011 has garnered rave reviews, including a shout-out from Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook in October, when he said during an Apple event that the software was "exceptionally good."

While Apple and Microsoft devotees sneer at each other in online posts, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates have sniped at each other in the past, scores of Apple and Microsoft engineers have for years worked together behind enemy lines. Microsoft has 240 engineers devoted to its Mac Office project.

Though Microsoft does not break out revenue for its Mac software division, the company estimates that more than three-fourths of all Macs run a version of its Office software. In a blog post, Pat Fox, the company's senior director of product for Office for Mac, said the 2011 version "has gone past our internal sales milestones."

Microsoft created its Mac unit in 1997, the year the Redmond, Wash.-based company and Apple announced an agreement that included a promise from Microsoft to ship Office for Mac for five years. Though that deal has expired, Microsoft continues to create new versions of its Mac products.

Microsoft's efforts reflect the growing business opportunities tied to Apple's success in the PC market. Last year, Apple's computers garnered nearly 9 percent of the U.S. PC market, an 18 percent surge, outpacing the overall U.S. PC market, which grew 5.7 percent.

In the past, the Mac Office software was lightweight compared with the Windows version, Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin said. The 2011 Mac version is virtually on par with its Windows cousin, he added.

"Microsoft now understands the importance of other platforms," Bajarin said. "There is a vibrant Mac community. They'll reap the benefit of that."

He'd like to see Microsoft build Android versions of Office. But for now, the company is only offering its popular productivity software on Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

Three Microsoft teams worked on the new software-in Mountain View; Redmond, Wash.; and Beijing. The company's valley engineers make regular 15-minute commutes to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., to confer with Macintosh engineers.

The latest version was a particular challenge because a Mac version of Outlook was built virtually from scratch, said Hoelter, whose team did most of the work on the e-mail application. It took about two-and-a-half years to build a Mac version of Outlook.

"There was a lot of original work that had to be done so that it feels like a Mac product," he said. "There were some very, very long nights" at the office.

The collaboration between the two companies means that sometimes enemies can be friends.

"The relationship with Apple is really good," Hoelter said. "Of course, there is competition too. They have their own productivity suite. In spite of that, we have a great relationship."

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OFFICE FOR MAC 2011:

The latest version of Microsoft's productivity software for Macintosh computers, Office for Mac, is considered a major upgrade and can run on Macintosh operating systems 10.5.8 or later. Here are some of the new features:

-The programs are faster.

-A Mac version of the e-mail application Outlook has been created for the first time.

-New Mac Office Web apps lets users post, access, edit and share Office documents with nearly any device with a browser.

-Users can co-author a document with multiple people in multiple locations, and can give online PowerPoint presentations to people who don't have PowerPoint.

Source: Mercury News reporting

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PRICING:

Microsoft sells three versions of Office for Mac 2011:

-Office for Mac Home & Business Edition 2011: $199 for one installation and $279 for two installations.

-Office for Mac Home & Student Edition 2011, which does not include Outlook: $119 for one installation and $149 for three installations.

-Office for Mac Academic Edition 2011, which includes Outlook but is offered only to college students and faculty: $99 for one installation.

(c) 2011, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.