Consumer Editions of Office to Follow Vista Into 2007

The delay in Windows Vista will affect the next version of Office, too. Microsoft said today it will put off the consumer release of Office 2007 so it is in line with the new release schedule for Vista.

Like Vista, Office 2007 will be available to business customers through Microsoft's volume licensing program by the end of 2006. However, the product won't be sold to consumers until January 2007, the company said.

Through a spokeswoman for its public relations firm Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft called the change a "business decision," and said the development of the software will be completed on schedule before the end of the year.

New Schedule

Microsoft plans to release two business editions of Office 2007--Office Professional Plus and Office Enterprise. These will be available to business customers through Microsoft's volume licensing program before the end of 2006, the company said. The OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) edition, Office Basic 2007, also will be available to those partners at the same time.

Consumer versions of Office--Office Home and Student 2007, Office Professional 2007, Office Small Business 2007 and Office Standard 2007--will be sold on retail shelves and through other consumer sales channels starting in January 2007, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft still expects to release a public Beta 2 of Office 2007 by late June, the company added

Management Shuffle

As expected, Microsoft reshuffled its Platforms & Services Division, appointing Steve Sinofsky to lead a new group overseeing Windows OS and Windows Live services development, the company said today.

The restructuring--part of a plan by the vendor to repair what it sees as lack of agility and growth in the division that oversees its largest property, Windows--also breaks up and renames groups that were formerly part of the MSN division.

Kevin Johnson, copresident of the Platforms & Services Division, announced the changes in an e-mail to his division. The group overseen by former Office group leader Sinofsky--the Windows and Windows Live Group--is one of eight groups that now comprise the division, according to Microsoft.

The other groups are the Windows Live Platform Group, led by Blake Irving, corporate vice president; the Online Business Group, led by David Cole, senior vice president; the Market Expansion Group, led by Will Poole, senior vice president; the Core Operating System Division, led by Brian Valentine, senior vice president; the Windows Client Marketing Group, led by Mike Sievert, corporate vice president; the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group, led by Sanjay Parthasarathy, corporate vice president; and the Server and Tools Business Group, led by Bob Muglia, senior vice president.

Who Does What

The Windows and Windows Live Group is new, and includes the Windows engineering team as well as development for the Windows Live online services that Microsoft launched in November. Also new are the Windows Live Platform Group and the Market Expansion Group, while Cole's Online Business Group replaces the division that once was MSN, according to Microsoft.

The Online Business Group includes advertising sales, business development, and marketing for Live Platforms, Windows Live, and all of the MSN properties, including MSN.com, MSNTV, and MSN Internet Access. Microsoft's MSN division has suffered from lack of growth and an identity crisis, especially after Microsoft announced its set of Web-based services under the Live brand in November.

Preparing for Allchin's Retirement

In his e-mail, Johnson said that he and group copresident Jim Allchin had worked out the changes together to prepare for Allchin's impending retirement at the end of the year. In addition to spurring growth and agility in the division, the changes were made to advance Microsoft's Web-based services strategy, he said.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Microsoft planned to make sweeping changes in its Platforms & Services Division in the wake of another delay to the release of the next version of Windows, Windows Vista. On Tuesday, Microsoft said it would not meet its deadline to release the client version of Vista on hardware by the end of the year. The business versions of the OS will be available to volume licensing customers by then, but the OS will not be on PCs until January 2007.

Microsoft has been under pressure to grow its revenue, as it has seen growth in its core businesses--Windows and Office--level off in recent years.