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MS Office to skip past 'unlucky' 13 in 2009

15.02.2007
Microsoft Corp. may have just released Office 2007 to consumers mere weeks ago, but the company is already working hard on the next version -- internally known as Office 14 -- and targeting it for release in the first half of 2009, according to information from Microsoft's own Web site.

The company plans to spend almost US$1 billion per year in R&D for Office 14, or about 20 percent more than the amount devoted to Office 2007, according to a PowerPoint slide deck from a Nov. 8, 2006 presentation by a Microsoft employee in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The information and excerpts from the slide show were first posted on Tuesday by the independent AeroXperience blog, which is geared toward Windows Vista developers.

AeroXperience's senior editor Stephen Chapman also reported that Microsoft is skipping the version 13 for Office because it is "unlucky," and that the company will begin "dogfooding," or beta-testing Office with internal Microsoft employees, late in 2007. Chapman cited an interview of Eric Vigesaa, program manager for Office system client applications, with Microsoft's TechNet radio chat from December 27th .

A Microsoft spokeswoman downplayed the information.

"Microsoft is always planning," said a spokeswoman. Moreover, "it's typical for the Office team to deliver a new version of Office every 2 to 3 years."