Microsoft to Apple, "We Won't Have a Carbonized Version of Office When OS X Ships"

Microsoft delivered the goods for Apple yesterday with Mac Office 2001, but the Redmond giant doesnit have a clue when a version of the all-important office productivity software suite will be made available for Mac OS X.

According to C/NET News, "Irving Kwong, Microsoftis product manager for its Mac business unit, made it clear the company is committed to delivering a Mac OS X version of Office. But he also could not speculate as to when Microsoft will deliver the productivity suite. iWe honestly donit know when,i he said."

Kwong did assure C/NET News this much: "We wonit have a Carbonized version of Office when OS X ships."

Mac OS X Public Beta expires on May 15, 2001, at which time "youill need a bootable Mac OS CD to gain access to the contents of your hard drive", according to Apple. The beta expiration boldly elevates May 15th as the very outside date for having Mac OS X 1.0 in distribution.

There is plenty of evidence that Microsoft is serious about supporting the Mac platform in their new ad campaign and in the special details included in MS Office 2001 just for Mac users. Microsoftis Mac business unit is also a very profitable division for Redmond. Furthermore, supporting the Mac platform is a politically important, if unspoken, part of Microsoftis attempt to shake their antitrust woes with the Justice Department