Macintosh Business Unit: 25 Years of Connecting Mac Users to Microsoft
Productivity
MacBU upgrades Entourage and delivers new ways to collaborate with PC and
Mac colleagues.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Jan. 6, 2009 -- Twenty-five years after Microsoft Corp.
launched Word 1 for Mac, the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) continues to
improve connections for Mac users to core Microsoft Office systems and
servers. Office for Mac users will soon have simplified and efficient
collaboration through Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies and
Microsoft Office Live Workspace with the Microsoft Document Collaboration
Companion for Mac Beta. The MacBU is also delivering Entourage for Exchange
Web Services (Entourage EWS) Beta -- a more modern protocol that updates
how Entourage e-mail client connects to Exchange Server for overall
improved e-mail and calendaring support. These developments are a critical
step in the MacBU's long-term commitment to deliver Microsoft software and
services across platforms.
"For 25 years Microsoft has delivered productivity software for the Mac. We
started on the desktop and today the MacBU delivers new ways for Mac users
to connect to Microsoft productivity on the Web," said Eric Wilfrid,
general manager of the MacBU. "Entourage EWS and the Document Collaboration
Companion lets Mac Office users connect with counterparts on a PC. These
releases are the first step for the MacBU in harnessing the power of
software plus services on the Mac."
Better Together -- Office Collaboration
Document Collaboration Companion provides Office for Mac users new ways to
work with both Office for Windows and Office for Mac colleagues through a
Cocoa-based application that provides easier downloading/uploading
capabilities to SharePoint Products and Technologies and Office Live
Workspaces. Delivering these improvements can help Office for Mac users tap
into the future of productivity as software plus services become an
essential combination across platforms. Features of Document Collaboration
Companion will include simplified ways to download and upload documents,
document check-out/in, offline document caching, and SharePoint Workspace,
Document Library, and Office Live Workspace access and browsing. Document
Collaboration Companion will be released in a private beta in February and
a final releaser later this year. More information is available at
http://microsoft.com/mac/itpros.
Entourage Gets a Behind-the-Scenes Makeover
Delivering greater connectivity between Entourage and Exchange as well as
stronger parity between Entourage and Outlook remains a top priority for
the MacBU. As part of this commitment, the team is moving the development
of Entourage from WebDAV to Exchange Web Services for better compatibility,
performance and reliability. These infrastructure changes provide more
agility in development moving forward and delivers support for syncing
Tasks, Notes and Categories for customers on Exchange Server 2007 Service
Pack 1 or later. Entourage EWS will launch a public beta this month. The
final release will be available later this year as a free update to Office
2008 users, distributed via Mactopia. More information is available at
http://microsoft.com/mac/itpros.
About Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit
The Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) at Microsoft is a leading developer of
software and online products for the Macintosh platform. The group of more
than 230 full-time Mac product experts is dedicated to creating innovative
software for Mac customers worldwide. For almost 25 years, Microsoft has
developed award-winning software for the Mac. In January 2008, the MacBU
released Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, a productivity suite that includes
the e-mail application and personal information manager Entourage 2008,
Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008 and Messenger for Mac 7.0. More
information about the MacBU and Microsoft Macintosh products is available
at http://www.microsoft.com/mac.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.
