http://www.macnn.com/articles/02/02/22/c|net.looks/
c|net looks at MS-Apple as contract nears end
updated 10:05 am EST, Fri February 22, 2002
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The end of the formal Microsoft-Apple five-year contract is nearing this summer and despite the pledge to work together with the MacBU, Apple still has has its differences with (other parts of) Microsoft, raising "the question of whether the two companies--which have long had a love-hate relationship--will reaffirm their commitments or begin to drift apart," according c|net.
Banned
Joined: Sep 2000
it's all good
I honestly don't see the expiration as a huge problem. As the article pointed out, the MBU is quite profitable (IIRC Microsoft's most profitable product for the past few years has been the Mac versions of Office), and they have a large market that isn't already saturated with Office -- note how quite a few Windows customers were unwilling to upgrade to Office XP because Office 97 and 2000 were still working well and they didn't want to pay the upgrade costs.
In addition, despite the final couple of paragraphs, I do think that if MS decided to withold Office for the Mac, the public outcry and resulting scrutiny would put too much pressure on MS at a time when they can see light at the end of the tunnel for the antitrust settlement.
Perhaps what Apple needs to do is work behind the scenes on pumping up AppleWorks into a full-featured competitor, or (better yet) buy WordPerfect off of Corel and continue its development for the Mac, as an alternative to Word.
In any event, it's a much different world than it was 5 years ago. Apple is much stronger, while MS is reeling from the lawsuit and the strain of trying to push both XP and the Xbox out the door simultaneously, and facing a saturated market for its products. I don't think either company has anything to really fear from the other.