Microsoft to make Office for new Apple OS

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp. pledged on Wednesday to make a version of its

popular Office business software for Apple Computer Corp.'s new operating

system, giving a big boost to the new software as Apple struggles with

lackluster sales.

Office for Apple's Macintosh OS X operating system would be available this

fall, Kevin Browne, general manager of Microsoft's Macintosh unit, told an

audience at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

"Microsoft loves OS X, at least our division does. Other divisions might

be sweating a bit," Browne said, in a joking reference to Microsoft's

Windows operating system that competes with Apple products.

Office includes applications such as the Word document creator, Excel

spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation software. It is Microsoft's

second-biggest profit generator, after Windows, and is deemed crucial to the

survival of Apple's machines because there are few popular alternatives.

"Microsoft is really critical to Apple building a fire behind this.

Apple couldn't do this without Microsoft," said Rob Enderle, an analyst

with the Giga Information Group, a technology consultancy.

Browne's comments marked the first time that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft

has promised to support the new Apple system, which is a drastic departure from

its earlier software.

Unveiled for release in March by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Tuesday,

OS X, pronounced "OS ten", will be the next-generation platform that

the company hopes will help it recover from projected financial losses this

quarter and set the stage for a decade of fresh software development.

Microsoft 'committed' to Apple



Office 2001, the current version for Macintosh systems, would run on OS X in the
so-called "classic" environment that enables older programs to work

with the new system, Browne said. Office 2001 has sold about 250,000 copies

since it hit shelves in October, topping Microsoft's expectations.

But the upcoming version of Office would be written specifically for OS X,

Browne said.

"This (OS X) is going to give us both the requirement and the

opportunity to rework our applications so they work much, much better,"

Browne said.

Browne said several times that Microsoft was "committed" to

supporting Apple, apparently trying to lay to rest fears that the software giant

would back away, a move that analysts said could sink its smaller rival.

"We are spending money in a huge way ... please set out of your mind the

question of whether or not we are committed," Browne said.

Apple and Microsoft have competed since the early 1980s, when Jobs and

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates went head-to-head for control of the budding

personal computer market.

By the mid-1990s, however, Windows had locked up an estimated 90 percent

market share in PC operating systems as Apple teetered on the verge of collapse.

At the 1997 MacWorld, in a scene that outraged many Mac enthusiasts and

became legendary in the industry, Jobs stood under a looming video screen

showing Gates, who announced that Microsoft would invest $150 million in Apple.

But Gates also pledged to continue cranking out Macintosh software, a

commitment that many analysts credited with helping to pull Apple back from the

brink.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.