RSSMicrosoft Pushes New Office into 2007
By Ed Oswald | Published March 24, 2006, 11:06 AM
A day after confirming a delay of Windows Vista until 2007, Microsoft late Thursday said there would be a similar delay in the launch of Office 2007.
While the code for the productivity suite is expected to be completed this year, a consumer launch will occur in conjunction with Windows Vista, expected in January. Members of Microsoft's Volume Licensing Program would be able to get Office code in October, however, a month ahead of Vista's business launch.
With both Vista and now Office missing from the holiday season lineup, analysts believe that PC sales will suffer as a result. Although, some say the damage was already done with Vista.
"Unlike Windows Vista, I also don't see any major disturbance caused by 2007 delivery of the next Office version," Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox said. "Microsoft is smart to release both products together."
Microsoft had also been rumored to be planning a massive launch campaign surrounding Office and Vista. Realigning the two products would allow such a plan to still take place, although a bit later than originally expected.
Wilcox explained that Microsoft is fighting the belief among consumers that what they already are running is "good enough." Shipping the two products together may give many enough impetus to go out and upgrade, he says.
Analyst Rob Enderle of The Enderle Group echoed Wilcox's sentiments, saying the delays as well as the restructuring of the Windows division would benefit all in the end.
"While the impact to 2006 revenue for the industry due to the delay will be painful, the end result should be a better Vista product, and going forward, a vastly more reliable Microsoft roadmap both in terms of product content and product timing," Enderle argued.
Office 2007 is a major upgrade to the ubiquitous suite, featuring XML-based file formats and a complete interface overhaul.
Please delay it even more Microsoft! Atleast until after I buy my new Apple notebook in March!
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|Hey, it just gives me more time to save the money to buy it. So what if I have to cash in some extra coke cans!
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|Bleh, not worth the money.
Don't get me wrong, it's a GREAT product but it's just too expensive for home users.
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|Bleh, not worth the money.
Don't get me wrong, it's a GREAT product but it's just too expensive for home users.
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Naw, don't agree. It's always worth the money for those of us who want it and can afford it.
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|I really don't think there should be any excuse for the delay. They took out a majority of all things promised with this version of windows. They say it's feature complete, so why now does it need another 8 months? I guess I would think feature complete would mean almost done, lets work out the bugs.
I guess it's true with the largest research and development budget in the world, why can't they put out a new os in time, ever? Look at apple they come out with new versions all the time with new advanced features, everything vista has osx has it already, which I have no doubt ms has copied. They can do it on a fraction of their budget. Whats up with that huh ms? Too many people using your product means, we don't have to do crap, lets just sit on it. Right? Oh wait we have to wait for some other feature to come out so we can add that into it at the last minute better delay another year. Whatever
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|If you'd bothered to read the article... they're not delaying Office for a technical reason. They are delaying it because of a desire to synchronize the release with Vista... kinda like Windows and Office 95.
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|I think the first clue was when "Office 12" was renamed "Office 2007."
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|Seems Microsoft are screwed.
If they release on a pre-determined date, people complain about bugs, if they defer the release until it's ready, people complain of the delays.
Make up your mind people. Personally, delays are better than bugs. If you want the S/W early, there are public beta programs to get on..
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|The problem is, no matter how long they take there will be bugs and security problems. Its from Microsoft after all.
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|That's the problem with people, right? They all seem to have opinions and none of them are usually the same.
(See how your logic doesn't work?) LOL
That's the benefit of individuality, everyone's opinion is different. When you have 10,000 people viewing a news site and commenting then you tend to see wild swings in bias in many directions.
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|Are we actually going to have a product that is released in the same year as it's product name suggests it would!?
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|Splitting hairs aren't you "efission"?
Win 95 was released in 1995, Win 98 was released in 1998, W2K was released in late 1999 (Wow a bit early!) Office 2003 released on 2003, Server 2003 released in 2003. What's your point?
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|Personally, I would rather it arrives late, but as a good quality release.
Same as Vista, Same as PS3...
I'm sick of companies releasing products based on marketing driven dates, or seasonal buying habits. "It's ready when it's ready" is the only way to ensure quality.
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|I would agree with you, except why is Microsoft making Office and Vista available to businesses before consumers? If Office and Vista are going to be finished by November, what is the point of making consumers wait another few months? Or am I missing something?
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|I would think that Vista and Office for buisness will be less flashy more of a basic (altough updated) than of a home media "experience."
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|the problems is that bussiness get the code first because they need to apply it to the whole line. so if they release the code to dell in november. dell will be able to ship computers with the code in january. the same month that ms is going to release to the general public. i am beta testing vista rigth now and to tell you the truth i dont like it at all. is like having a mac. i am just going to stick with windows xp and suse.
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|Makes the employees want to use the product, and enjoy using it more if the interface is better looking!
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|"Once again Microsoft appear to be failing to deliver."
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Perhaps the beta testing community along with others should be blamed for finding bugs in the software. S'pose? Personally I'd rather have a product that is as free of bugs as possible before it's delivered to those of us who like Microsoft products.
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|That's the way Blizzard has always done it with video games and people don't seem to question it... lol there's always a critic somewhere... oh well... I'd rather see a bug free(er) product at launch too, so no complaints here...
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|That’s right blame it on us! there having some problems getting it out to people, the servers are extremely overwhelmed with people downloading office, they just set up some new servers and people are starting to just get the beta 1 refresh...
On the bright side it seems to be coming along nicely, a brand new interface since beta 1, they haven’t given the new interface to everything yet, but I’m sure they will. Office seems to be allot faster since the last beta takes 2 seconds to load now we’re it used to take about 10 - 15 seconds.
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|Good post! I totally agree with you. The whole server thing was a real pain. Most testers couldn't even get the beta for at least a week after initial release. I also agree that the beta seems to be moving along well. All of the bugs I reported first time around are now gone. I'm thinking that maybe the delay has more to do with the Vista delay and Microsoft wanting to make sure that Office works well with Vista.
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|They probably want to make sure it works with the final builds of Vista before they release it, rather than having to update it when Vista comes out.
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|Once again Microsoft appear to be failing to deliver. (csamaha - My point exactly) Surely if it is ready for mission critical business then why not joe bloggs at home!
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|Read the fracking article... you would know that they are delivering it in January to synchronize with the Vista release.
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|Is there any info yet on pricing? I remember in past, Microsoft let consumers trade in previous copy of Office if they had just purchased that current version within two months time of new version being sold. This should explain all the stores offering a $75 rebate from Microsoft for Office 2003.
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|probably. or just wait a couple of months and some hacker will figure out how to crack it. they are cracking now xbox360
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|Yeah, there was an article on BetaNews a while back when they announced the product name. Pretty much the exact same pricing as Office 2000, 2002 (XP), and 2003... with a few other variation versions mixed in.
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