25 Years of Connecting Mac Users to Microsoft

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.

AUCKLAND Jan. 7, 2009 — Twenty-five years after Microsoft 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 launching Entourage for Exchange Web Services (Entourage EWS) Beta — a more modern protocol that updates how Entourage e-mail client connects to Exchange Server, improving 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. A Cocoa-based application offers 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
• SharePoint Workspace,
• Document Library
• 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.

ENDS

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