Microsoft has been slowly releasing details about the upcoming release of Office 2008 for Mac, and on Tuesday announced three Office bundles. The company also revealed that Office 2008 for Mac will ship on January 15, 2008.

The new version of Microsoftis office productivity suite will be Universal Binary allowing it to run natively on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, will support Microsoftis new Open XML file format, and will be available in several languages.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac will include Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008, Entourage 2008, Microsoft Exchange Server support, and Automator tools. A special priced Home and Student Edition will also be available.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition will include the full Office suite along with Microsoft Expression Media digital asset management. Expression Media is an application that gives users a single point for managing the images, documents, and other content they use in their Office projects.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 will be priced at US$399.95, or $239.95 for upgrades. The Home and Student Edition will cost $149.95. The Special Media Edition will be priced at $499.95, or $299.95 for upgrades.

Microsoft also announced a technology guarantee program that will allow qualifying Office 2004 for Mac buyers to upgrade to Office 2008 for $10.