Rumor: Office 2004 to ship in May


MacsOnly reports that it has received a note from MacMall stating that Office 2004 will ship in May -- next month. Announced at Macworld San Francisco, this latest update of Microsoft's benchmark productivity suite for the Mac is expected to include a host of new features including:

• Project management functionality,
• Improved presentation tools;
• Improved junk mail filtering (Entourage); etc.

A number of websites are currently hosting screen caps from beta versions of Office 2004, including Apple Insider.

Adding further weight to this "rumor" is a ThinkSecret write up which quotes unnamed Microsoft MacBU insiders that say the product will be sent to manufacturing on April 15 and that sufficient copies for a retail rollout will be available in four to six weeks.

It is worth noting again, that those purchasing Office X -- the currently shipping version -- can are eligible for a "free" upgrade to v2004 when it ships. This offer is good for purchases made from Jan 6 through June 30.

Those interested can pick up a copy at Small Dog, which offers a full (OEM) version for $199.

Editor's note: Yeah...