Absolutely useless without the Macros/VB that all those users of the PC version are still using. If you work with Corporate MS Office users, this version is not going to help with compatibility and means that only older Mac versions will be used - so no sales here for MS.

Let's get real. Unless you need it as a company with a big network of offices using both PCs and Macs it will not be a nice option for a home business or regular Mac user that already got iWork. I mean. Today iWork it's almost complete for business use, It is fr superior than iWork 06 so I hope an upgrade in Mac World Expo, and so on... If you look closely, iWork it's more advance than Office right now. Today it's just what you like most and not what works best becasue both does their job equally. Apple produce their apps for Macs to shine. MS build apps for Macs with a "not shine enough please" macro inside. Keep iWork, kill Office. Macs RULE. If U wanna a PC like Mac, get a PC forget about Mac. or use boot camp, an option that Apple brings for protecting our Macs against viruses. (That's what Boot Camp is: a Mac Anti Virus lol)

Up until recently, I worked for an Apple reseller. We sold more copies of Microsoft Office than any other software. Even with Numbers included with iWork, some users preferred Office.

The two suites do not share exact parity, and when the bulk of your work life revolves around file compatibility, sometimes Office is a necessity.

I personally like iWork for day to day things, but then again I don't need an exact conversion. iWork does choke on the odd Office file, whether people want to admit it or not.

In the end, most of the people that NEED Office for their work require ABSOLUTE compatibility, which iWork doesn't offer.

iWork opens and saves Office documents fine, Office doesn't open Pages documents.

iWork costs a small fraction of the price.

iWork has higher user ratings than MS Office.

I don't trust Microsoft as much as Apple to make a good Mac product.

I'm not saying that iWork is inferior or superior. I'm saying that since unless things change where Office isn't the standard and iWork is, iWork isn't PERFECT for business environments due to parity.

It will read and write to Office formatted documents, yes. The "parity" that I'm talking about means that it isn't exactly duplicated. I would have customers bring me documents from their work place that we'd test in the store, prior to their "switch" to the world of Mac.

Sometimes the company's logo would get jumbled up, or it would squeeze the letterhead to be two lines instead of one.

While it's all well and good that one could make their own templates to use on their end, who's to say that the recipient will be seeing what you want them to see on their end. They could have the exact same problem due to how iWork creates the .doc or .xls file.

Also, if they're having to make their own templates for letterheads and such, they would be hard-pressed to keep up that pace if their entire job revolved around filing those attachments with various individuals all day.

I have noticed that Keynote seems to be very consistent with PowerPoint conversions, both coming and going. I've seen it choke on embedded audio more than once, however.

This is the opinion that I've gathered helping hundreds of people "switch" at a few different stores. There are too many unknown variables for iWork's Office translators to work 100% of the time. Sometimes it handled the conversions flawlessly; other times, it would choke on a minor formatting detail.

iWork is a fantastic application. Again, as I said, I'm a regular user of Apple's suite. I'm saying that if the rest of the world speaks one language, and you have to use a translator to communicate with them, even the best translator will make the odd mistake.

Why ask Why...I could not agree more with that. A much simpler word processor along with basic Biography cross-Reference authoring/writing tools with a simple brushed metal interface would do me nicely too. When I want write a business letter to basic content, I can do without all the Fluff.

Excel is the only component worthy of the wait. After using Numbers 08 for a while, I have realized how much I missed some of Excel's features that are not in existence in Numbers 08 and the fact that my proficiency level has improved in Excel (Pivot Tables). Otherwise, I couldn't care less for all the other c*** they are loading in Office 08. And for their sake, I hope that the Entourage client can easily synch with iPhone which could be another good thing...

Don't kid yourself, Pages is not on parity with Word, even the current version. It is nice for people who don't have to exchange any kind of documents with PC users.

Yes, yes, I know Pages can save Word files and open them. However, it does a horrible job at it if there is any complexity to the document. That is Microsoft's fault for keeping its formats closed, but nonetheless Pages doesn't do Doc files better then any other third party suite.

Unless something takes Office's place (open office, or whatever), iWork will have to sit nicely next to my MS suite.

Given a choice (such as I am making my own document and exporting to PDF or for my own use) I use:

Indesign for page layout. It has them all beat for usability and tools.

Keynote is the best presentation software ever and buries PowerPoint.

Numbers has Excel beat hands down, but takes a little getting used to.

Not given a choice (because I'm creating a document to send to a PC user): I am forced to use MS Office.

Isn't that the case for all Microsoft software?