Office 2007 Delayed Again

Tyler Too writes "Ars Technica reports that Microsoft Office 2007 has been delayed again, this time into early 2007. 'Based on internal testing and the beta 2 feedback around product performance, we are revising our development schedule to deliver the 2007 system release by the end of year 2006, with broad general availability in early 2007.' Tough bit of timing after this week's online preview of Office 2007."

Time to upgrade?

[AsmCoder8088]

I'm still using Office '97!

pass the shovel

[__aaitqo8496]

microsoft is just digging thier hole deeper and deeper. of course, the incentive to upgrade to office is typically called into question with each iteration; but after the vista delay media frenzy, this is probably not exactly what microsoft wanted.

Re:cue the obligatory joke:

[PB_TPU_40]

Actually they should change from the year labels, that is so Windows 95. This naming scheme is also leaving them open for these jokes when they push back shipping dates.
Maybe they should just call it "Office V10", fewer crashes, with twice the big brother. Look here [slashdot.org] [slashdot.org] if you're unsure what I mean.

I tried it...

[citizenklaw]

I tried the beta this week. I went in with an open mind, actually I was quite eager to try the 'ribbon' thingy. My hopes where dashed by the shameful M$ data mining effort before accesing the demo.

I don't like it. Maybe is the learning curve, but doing basic stuff in Word (changing font size, for instance) was troublesome. The terminal environment didn't work either. And Outlook? Piece of crap. I for one will stay on my current version of OpenOffice, thank you.

Re:I tried it...

[SA3Steve]

The 'data mining' effort? Do you mean where they are trying to get feedback on the program? It is a BETA release...where I would think the main idea is to get feedback.

What was troublesome about the font changing mechanism? What didn't work about the terminal environment? What could be done to improve Outlook? Feedback is always welcome I would assume, but there isn't much that Microsoft can do without feedback explaining what you felt was wrong and how you feel it could be made better.

Be Patient

[tkarr]

You'll notice that they CARE about the people who use their product. People might give Office crap about how they keep pushing products back, but they only do it so you get the best product. Do you complain when Blizzard does it?
You do?
Well, you shouldn't :-P. It's worth it to wait.

Re:cue the obligatory joke:

[saridder]

Psychologically speaking, calling it Office (next version such as 2007) just sounds like an upgrade, and upgrades are tough ways to get companies to shell out money as MS has seen first hand. From a marketing perspective, Office Simple or Office Vista sounds like something new and might get companies to buy.

If it were me, I'd call it Office Live or something else to promote its collaborative features. In fact I'd call it anything but Office (next version) to try and break out of the upgrade cycle. I'd probably do studies and conduct research and find the optimal work that most consumers and business favorably responded to. Didn't they just hire some Walmart and Proctor & Gamble execs?

(of course, they could always be "old fashioned" and add some ground-breaking innovative features and functionality that create a new market so they wouldn't have to rely on marketing tricks).

Re:Be Patient

[Volante3192]

Only company I don't complain about pushing back release dates is Valve. (Might do the same for Blizzard, but newest I have of theirs is WC3:FT, and I haven't beaten it yet)

They've shown they can justify a delay because the product is GOOD.

Microsoft has not given me the level of confidence Valve has.

Licensing 6.0

[nighty5]

Microsoft is laughing all the way to the bank.

Not only have they locked in the vast majority of enterprise customers, they now have no pressure to deliver a product when they said they would.

This is classic Microsoft and their best.

Re:What's in it that would make me want to buy it?

[Planesdragon]

Anyone that wants PDF or Blogging from Word probably has that without 2007.

No, not really.

PDF with Word you can get by either going through the hassle of installing a second printer subsystem, the frustration of getting a sub-par system for a modest fee, or the expense of buying a software package whose cost can equal that of Word.

Blogging -- there is no in-Word blogging for any system prior than 2007. Period. At best, you can get an ugly cut-and-paste that will either get you no benefit or just give you bloat.

And if you think that only tech-savy users want PDFs or Blogging, you've spent too much time navel gazing.

Re:Geeze

[Fullhazard]

People don't need to think up new bad things to say about windows/office. All the complaints are as valid today as they were in 95.
What microsoft needs to do is FIX the problems that everyone complains about, and THEN they will become pointless to say
Example: Politicians are corrupt. Millions of people every day claim politicians are corrupt, and yet, in many cases, it's true, so the complaint is bloody well valid!

As for the 90%/10% jab, you realize this is /. right? News for Nerds, home of the rampaging linux fanboys?
I wouldn't be suprised if the windows/non-windows percentages were more like 60/40 or 50/50.

Re:Listen to Jensen Harris Before Deciding

[jafac]

Well, I hope they've got the "context sensitive" thing really figured out - because there's nothing I hate more than a UI that thinks it knows better than the user what the user wants to do.

Case-in-point:
O2K (Word) I don't know how to reproduce this - but sometimes when I rt.click on a number-list, and look for "bullets and numbering" in the so-called context menu, it's not there. Or sometimes it's there, and it's greyed out. So then I go up to the menu bar and select Format->Bullets and Numbering - to modify the number-list properties. The context menu apparently thought it was being clever.

Those supposed context-sensitive "ribbons" in O2k7 better not fuck with me. I'll go to Open Office. I swear. And I'll take my customers with me.

Could the reason be...

[Churla]

That MS realizes there isn't any new "killer app" value in the office suite? Due to that they have no pressing need to rush a new version out the door until it's what they want, and until it meets some level of quality they're shooting for. When "We're putting in ribbons!" is the huge leap forward.. you're not leaping very far.

If that's the case maybe this is a good thing in that they're trying to take their time. We all know it's not financially driven because shareholders want to see big profits before the end of this year to pick up the sagging stock price. As it is they're positioning for 2007 to be a huge year (new windows and new office in same year), which would make current shareholders somewhat unhappy. Because NOBODY buys a stock with the long term in view anymore... do they?

Re:I tried it...

[chad_r]

Remember when "beta" releases were for bug testing. Nowadays, it's for getting free R&D from the users.