Microsoft said on Thursday that the next version of Office for Mac will be available by Christmas 2010, and added that the new version will include a version of Outlook.
Outlook for Mac will replace Entourage, the current email and calendar program in the Mac Office suite. Although it will still differ from the Windows version of Outlook, it will add support for more Exchange features such as public folders.
Office for Mac had a version of Outlook in its pre-Mac OS X days, but Microsoft switched to the Entourage program with Office for Mac v X because that version lacked a good connection with Exchange. The software maker has worked over the past few years to add better Exchange capabilities.
Apple, too, has worked to support Exchange within its own mail program and has said it will add improved Exchange capabilities from within Mail as part of its forthcoming Snow Leopard operating system.
Macintosh Business Unit general manager Eric Wilfrid said on a conference call that he could not discuss how Outlook for Mac will compare to Snow Leopard's Exchange support since Apple has not yet released the new operating system or detailed how the Exchange support will work.
Microsoft will also bring back Visual Basic support in the next version of Office for Mac, but did not share more about the features that will be part of Office for Mac.
Wilfrid had no comment to make about rumours Microsoft might do mobile versions of Office for the iPhone.
"That's been a popular question," he said. "No, there is no news today about any iPhone work."
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced a partnership with Nokia that will see it creating mobile versions of the Office applications for Symbian phones.
Microsoft also said it will launch a new "business edition" of its Office for Mac product that adds improved connections to SharePoint and Exchange Server.
The new product will join the existing Home and Student edition on retail shelves starting 15 September and will reduce the number of versions Microsoft sells from three to two. The new business edition, which will sell for the same $399 (£240) as the standard edition of Office.
