Beyond Binary

While Apple's market share gains are cause for consternation for many in Redmond, one unit is clearly benefiting.

Microsoft's Mac unit is set to disclose on Tuesday that copies of the new Office for Mac 2008 are flying off the shelves at three times the rate of its predecessor. The company wouldn't disclose sales numbers, but said the sales are the highest in the 19-year history of the unit. That continues a trend that has been going on for some time.

Senior marketing manager Amanda Lefebvre declined to give all of the credit to Apple, but said of the increased number of Macs, "Of course that's one of the components that is helping us."

The company also said it was ready with the first "service pack" update for Mac Office 2008, adding things like reliability and performance tweaks, as well as some changes aimed at boosting security. The update will be available Tuesday for download and will also be pushed out through Microsoft's AutoUpdate system, Lefebvre said.

Finally, the company announced that, for the next full release of Office for Mac, it is bringing back support for Visual Basic scripts. That feature was in Office 2004 but was pulled in the current version as Microsoft worked to add support for Intel processors and new file formats.

Lefebvre wouldn't say what any of the other features planned for the next Mac Office will be, but said the company is looking to get back on a cycle that would have it releasing new products every two to three years. (Office for Mac 2008 took four years.)

For those still using the last release of Office, Lefebvre said that, after several delays, Microsoft is on track to release by the end of June the converters that let that product work with the XML file formats that are part of Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac.

"We're on track for that," she said. "We're happy to be getting those off our plate and developing for the future."

Ever since the release of the iPhone developer kit, software companies everywhere have been trying to figure out just what they might be able to bring to the device.

The list of interested parties includes Microsoft.

"It's really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone," Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Specialized Devices and Applications Group, said in an interview with Fortune. "To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we're actually in the process of trying to understand that now."

Asked for further comment, a representative for Microsoft's Mac business unit told News.com the company is "excited to see improved and updated products and services for its customers" but had nothing to announce as far as its roadmap.

Microsoft clearly has some priorities to juggle here. The company would most like to compete with the iPhone with its Windows Mobile smartphones (as well as its recent Danger acquisition). But other of the company's initiatives, including Windows Live and Office, would benefit from being ubiquitously available.

The software maker has already said it would like to find a way to get its Silverlight onto the iPhone, and, of course Apple has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology to bring Exchange connectivity to the iPhone.

Here's an interesting question--Would Microsoft want to charge for a version of Office for the iPhone? It could provide some added revenue to the unit, but Microsoft would be forced to hand over 30 percent of the proceeds to its rival.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it has released its first update to Office 2008 for Mac, fixes that should boost stability and performance in some areas, while closing some security holes.

In an e-mail, Microsoft said that version 12.0.1 adds "suite-wide stability and performance improvements," along with the security fixes.

On its Web site, the company offered a little more detail, adding, "This update fixes critical issues in Office 2008, including issues that might cause Office 2008 applications to stop responding or quit unexpectedly."

After some delay, Microsoft released Office 2008 in January. The company has also delayed several times the availability of converter tools that allow its predecessor to read the XML file formats introduced with Office 2007 for Windows. As a result, Mac owners who need to read the new formats are faced with the choice of either upgrading or relying on the limited, beta converters that Microsoft has made available thus far.

Microsoft also issued an update Tuesday for the older Office 2004 for Mac product. "This update fixes a vulnerability that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code," Microsoft said on its Web site, referring to the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.4.1 update.