Interview of Scott Erickson (MacBU)

Twenty years after Word and Multiplan, Microsoft is still involved in software development for the Macintosh platform. That what the commitment agreement signed by Apple and Microsoft last november wants to emphasize. the strength of the partnership between Apple and the MacBU… and how much both of them pay attention to the needs of their professional customers.

[MacPlus :] Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit and Apple recently announced a major agreement at Macworld Conference and Expo. Certain parts relate to the short term, others to mid term and the prospect is the 5 years to come. Could you tell more about them?

[Scott Erickson :] The commitment agreement that we signed with Apple has three parts. First, Microsoft will continue to develop Office for Mac for both Power-PC and Intel-based Macs. Second, Apple will continue to provide Microsoft access to new technologies that pertain to the development of Office. Third, the agreement was signed in November, 2005 and runs for a minimum of 5 years.
We feel that this agreement is a great step in concretely demonstrating our commitment to the Mac platform and Mac customers around the world.

[MacPlus :] How was this new milestone between the two companies decided? Is it always easy to work with Apple?

[Scott Erickson :] The commitment agreement came about due to customer questions relating to Microsoft’s commitment to the platform following the announcement of the Intel switch. Although we have been developing Mac software for over 20 years, we wanted to visually demonstrate our strong commitment to the platform.
We’ve been working with Apple for over 20 years and our relationship seems to get stronger each year. They are a great partner.

[MacPlus :] The most close to come aspect announced by Roz Ho concerns the improvement of the current version of Office 2004, especially Entourage 2004. Why didn’t it take advantage of Sync service or Spotlight sooner?

[Scott Erickson :] We were very interested in both Sync Services and Spotlight when they first introduced but we needed additional development time to finish the features. For Sync Services, we needed to work with Apple engineers to better leverage the APIs required to make syncing work. For Spotlight, we released Spotlight filters for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint at the initial release of Tiger. For Entourage, we needed to work with Apple to make some changes to how Spotlight accesses the Entourage database.

All of those updates will be a free download from our website in March.

[MacPlus :] Another echeance announced is an Universal Binary version of Mac Office… but not yet scheduled. Does the development have to begin from ground?

[Scott Erickson :] Moving a product like Office for Mac to a universal binary is a big project. We don’t have to start from the ground up but we do have considerable work to do. The first step is bringing the application to XCode and then bringing it to Intel. This is adding time to our development schedule but the work is going well so far.—–

[MacPlus :] The 5 years agreement to develop Mac products gives a perspective for both customers and analysts. But it seems that only the professional field is concerned, and the consumer part was given up. Why did the MBU stop Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for Mac development ?

[Scott Erickson :] We announced in 2003 that we were stopping development of IE for Mac. We felt that there were other good browsers on the market that were meeting the needs of the consumer and our efforts would be better focused on Office and Virtual PC. We have worked closely with Apple so that Safari continues to meet the needs of browser customers accessing Microsoft technology from a Mac.
The MacBU does not actually develop Windows Media Player for the Mac (it is created by the Windows Media team) so I can’t really comment on their announcements. The MacBU continues to be focused on developing world-class productivity software for the Mac and our products and our public commitment are great examples of that.

[MacPlus :] What is the part of Apple customers in the volume of both Office versions?

[Scott Erickson :] I’m not sure I understand the question. If you are asking about how we use feedback from Apple customers on helping to decide what to build into our products, we use extensive research and feedback from Mac customers around the world to decide on what to build. We conduct worldwide research to better understand what customers need with productivity software, we engage customer councils, beta testers, and extensive testing and verification of our products throughout the development cycle. Our products are a reflection of what our customers have asked for.

[MacPlus :] Tell us more about the Office Open XML file format part of the agreement, and what about Mac users’ access of Office as an online platform.

[Scott Erickson :] The commitment agreement that we signed with Apple has three parts as I mentioned earlier. First, Microsoft will continue to develop Office for Mac for both Power-PC and Intel-based Macs. Second, Apple will continue to provide Microsoft access to new technologies that pertain to the development of Office. Third, the agreement was signed in November, 2005 and runs for a minimum of 5 years.

Office Open XML file formats are the next file formats for both Office for Windows and Office for Mac. We announced that we will support the new file format natively in our next version as well as provide converters after the launch of Office for Windows to ensure seamless compatibility until we launch our next version.

We will be talking about the upcoming release of Office in the future and we will definitely keep you informed. For now, we’re focusing on some key areas of compatibility, productivity, and collaboration.

[MacPlus :] How is iWork `06 perceived at the MBU?

[Scott Erickson :] iWork is a good product for a certain type of user. For people who need little to no collaboration with others or people who have a very light need for productivity software, iWork can be OK. Our research shows that 92% of Mac users say that compatibility is the most important feature to them and Office delivers that. Along with compatibility, Office is a set of four highly-integrated applications that improve productivity for over 8 million users around the world. Office is really the gold standard of productivity software.

[MacPlus :] Between the lines is an in depth and more confident collaboration between Apple and the MBU, particularly concerning VirtualPC. Is the goal so hard to achieve both partners have to give up their ulterior motives? By the past, did Apple give MBU developers all the elements they needed?

I am not 100% clear on the question but I believe you are asking about our cooperation with Apple specifically in developing VPC for Mac. Apple has been a great partner during the development of Office and VPC. Apple is very fond of both products and have supported our development efforts. Apple and MacBU share a developer database where we can each log bugs towards each others’ applications. If we find a bug in the OS, we tell them. If they find one in Office, they tell us. This relationship has been this way for many, many years.

[MacPlus :] Generally speaking, how is the Macintosh Business Unit perceived at Microsoft Campus, and how feel the 180 MacBU chicks and guys?

[Scott Erickson :] The MacBU is a great place to work and is a great part of the Microsoft offerings. MacBU is made up of people who love the Mac and love making great software for Mac customers around the world. We get the best of both worlds – we get to work for a great software company making terrific software and we get to work with cool hardware while doing it. I love working in MacBU!