Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 sent to manufacturing
Josh OngThe Mac Business Unit team at Microsoft published a celebratory post on their blog Friday announcing that they had "signed off on final testing" and sent the product to production. This latest release was two and a half years in the making, with team members in Redmond, Silicon Valley, Beijing, Dublin Tokyo.
Office for Mac 2011 should be Microsoft's "best release yet," according to Product Unit Manager Geoff Price, who authored the post.
Key features added include Outlook for Mac, co-authoring, ribbons, cloud-based storage, in-document photo editing.
Macworld reported earlier that online retailer Amazon.com had an Oct. 26 availability date listed on its website, but the release date has since been removed. Microsoft had announced in August that the product would ship by the end of October.
Customers who purchase Office 2008 for Mac between Aug. 1, 2010 and Nov. 30, 2010 are eligible for a free upgrade. All other users will have to purchase the standalone versions. Prices start at $119 for the Home and Student version, which lacks Outlook, and $199 for the Home and Business version. An Academic version will also be offered to qualifying students and educators for $99.
For more, see AppleInsider's previous coverage of Office for Mac 2011:
Mike Wuerthele
Malcolm Owen
Chip Loder
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Michael Stroup
37 Comments
I can't wait for this.... 2008 is terribly slow and not compatible with windows docs often.
Well done, it's hard to finish a large software project on time. I look forward to trying out the new email program.
Wow. That is certainly good news for Apple! Microsoft treats them very well, all things considered.
It's not even funny how much better 2011 is than 2008.
This will be nice once it gets updated / secured. Right now I am using 08 for some academic writing. 2011 would be a risk if it changes formatting. But eventually, it will be nice to upgrade.