Microsoft pushes back Office 2008 for Mac due date

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Microsoft has confirmed that it is pushing back the full-blown release of Office 2008 for Mac from the second half of this year to January next year for US retail customers.

But business customers in the US and rest of the world will have to wait a little longer to get their hands' on the software, with Microsoft saying copies for volume licence holders being ready sometime in the first quarter of 2008.

The software giant has moved the release to manufacturing (RTM) date to December this year, a move it claims is just as frustrating for its team working on future versions as it is for customers who are waiting for the product's market appearance with baited breath.

"As tough as it is, I firmly believe that this slip is the right call for MacBU [Microsoft's Mac business unit]. Delivering Office at the right quality level is super important to the entire team and to Microsoft's long standing commitment to the Mac platform, and it was clear from our June and July quality checkpoints that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't release our product in time for the Christmas season with the kind of quality we wanted," said Craig Eisler, general manager of MacBU in a blog post.

"We're in an 'all hands on deck' mode right now to ensure Office 2008 gets finished on time, and so you will not see final versions of our RDC client or file format converters until sometime after we ship Office. Starting in September, we are planning a series of 'sneak peeks' to show you more of the features and functionality of this release. I'm very pleased that we can soon start sharing more of what the team has been up to - stay tuned."

User reaction to the delay referenced in the blog post was mixed, with some users remaining angry, but others taking a more pragmatic approach and preferring to wait for something that's not half baked.

"Shigeru Miyamoto creator of Mario and Zelda) once said, 'A delayed game is eventually good; a bad game is bad forever,'" commented one poster.

Another added: "Disappointed...but hardly surprised. With the lack of concrete info, feature sets and screenshots, anyone who couldn't have predicted missing the 'Fall' window wasn't paying attention."

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