MS Office for Apple computers due in Oct

NEW YORK, USA: Microsoft Corp said on Monday that it would release the updated version of its lucrative Office software package for Apple Inc computers in late October, with a starting price of $119.

The world's largest software company's "Office for Mac 2011" software suite, which includes popular applications Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint, is targeted at business users and is one of the main products sold for its rival's line of personal computers.

Microsoft's business division, which averages around $2.8 billion profit per quarter, gets 90 per cent of its overall sales from Office, which is a staple on corporate computers.

The company said that customers who buy the version of Office for Mac currently in stores can upgrade to Office 2011 at no additional cost.

IE 9 in September

Microsoft had recently announced that a beta for Internet Explorer 9, the latest version of its popular browser, will be available fore download this September.

“The most beautiful thing about our browser story is the message is getting out with IE8, the safest most secure browser in the marketplace," Turner said. "We're really excited about IE9 which will be beta and coming out in September,” Microsoft's COO, Kevin Turner, said at the company's annual Financial Analyst Meeting in Redmond recently.