[Ti] MS dropping Office for Mac

[NaegeleWDC at aol.com]

Mike Bigley, Shawn King, and Phil McGree have said:

>On 1/20/03 6:17 PM, "Michael Bigley" <wakinyan at fuse.net> wrote:
>
> > Microsoft (remember MS once announced they were dropping Office for
>> Mac),
>
>While MS has privately threatened to do that, they have never made any such
>"announcement".

"They would be mad to. 

"1) Office for the Mac makes a bunch of money for MS, despite it not selling as well as MS would like (ie pricing).  Mac software just doesn't have the high tech support costs that Windows equivalents do."

If MS dropped its Mac version of Office, I seriously doubt that I would ever buy a Mac again.  As lawyers, all we really require is MS Word and Internet access to do everything that we need; and indeed, MS Word allows us to operate across platforms very nicely.  Right now we are in the midst of an important brief and related filings, and three other lawyers and I are exchanging draft versions and editing them using MS Word, and doing so without a hitch.

If MS dropped Office, I would probably pick up a Wintel machine sooner or later; and I hope that never happens.

As to Phil's comment that "Mac software just doesn't have the high tech support costs that Windows equivalents do," I was appalled to see that MS starts charging a hefty price for phone calls after the second one.  Office for Mac is a very complicated program, and it's outrageous that MS effectively pushes the program out the door and then says to its buyers: "You're on your own!"  My loyalty to MS vanished years ago, but we need them for our work. 

Next, "XXL" states:

"I wish Microsoft WOULD drop Office.  . . .  I think the Mac will do fine without
it."

With all due respect, I disagree completely.  He adds: "The business market is lost to Apple at this point."  I disagree with that too.

Lots of lawyers use Macs and love them (see, e.g., http://www.maclaw.org for a very active group of them).  Certainly the entertainment industry uses Macs; and in my opinion, it would be a big mistake to ever write off business sales. 

Finally, Les Posen refers us to an interesting post about Apple's direction (or lack thereof):

See http://www.fool.com/community/pod/2003/030117.htm
 
Tim Naegele

www.naegele.com

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