Office Center of Mac Spat

Slow sales of Office v. X, Microsoft’s Office suite for the Macintosh OS X, have led Microsoft to publicly state its disappointment with the slow adoption of Apple’s newest operating system. While Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit has continued to release products for OS X, the operating system’s woes and impending competition from open source applications might slow or prevent release of some key Mac products for corporate customers and undermine the Mac unit’s support within Microsoft.

Office Sales Prompt Reassessment

On the eve of the July 2002 MacWorld trade show, Microsoft announced it had sold 300,000 units of Office v. X, well short of the 700,000 units expected. The company has since announced a US$100 mail-in rebate for customers who buy Office v. X with OS X at retail, and US$50 for those who buy the two preinstalled on a new machine. Both offers are good until Sept. 30, 2002.

Microsoft blames slow Office v. X sales on slower-than-expected adoption of OS X, which currently accounts for 10% of the Mac user base. Upgrade costs and limited hardware support at launch slowed the initial uptake of OS X, but Microsoft contends that Apple also has failed to drive OS 9 users to upgrade. “OS X is remarkably stable and easy to use, but not a lot of users know that,” says Tim McDonough, director of marketing for Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit.