Apple Rumors

It may be winter, but that’s not stopping Apple from reaping what it can with its beefed-up iWork ‘08 productivity suite. And that’s a smart move for the company, analysts say, because when the next version of Office makes its long-awaited debut next month the Microsoft offering should easily retain its grip on the office productivity market for the Mac. Microsoft Office has long been the dominant player when it comes to suites that offer word-processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools.

But two factors have converged that make Office’s hold on the market appear vulnerable. First, it’s been more than three years since Microsoft released Office 2004. In the intervening years, Apple has switched to Intel processors to power its hardware, and most high-profile apps have been rewritten to run natively on Intel-based machines. Office remains the highest-profile exception. Second, Apple has ramped up the pressure on Office by revamping its own office productivity suite, iWork.

This summer, Apple unveiled iWork ‘08 . In addition to adding more word-processing features to its Pages page-layout app, Apple also introduced its new Spreadsheet tool, Numbers. Those products, combined with the already well-regarded Keynote presentation, turned iWork into a suite that could match what Office had to offer-with the added benefit of the software coming directly from Apple. According to NPD Group , Apple’s efforts with iWork have paid off.

The revamped suite has captured 16 percent of the office productivity application sales on the Mac, with Microsoft’s Office taking the rest. While that figure is “a success for Apple,” NPD says, the market-research firm doesn’t feel that number is sustainable once Office 2008 arrives on the Mac. Microsoft has announced that Office 2008 will ship on January 15, 2008 .