Only about 35 percent of large businesses plan to move up to the latest version of Microsoft's Office software next year, according to a new survey of chief information officers.

The Merrill Lynch survey polled CIOs at 75 U.S. companies and 25 European ones on a number of issues, including whether they were "likely to upgrade to Office 2003 in the next year."

A total of 65 percent said "no," a result Merrill Lynch attributed to complex new server-based functions--including capabilities based on Extensible Markup Language (XML)--included in the new version of the productivity software. "Without a new killer app in Office, the upgrade cycle looks to be gradual until new XML-based technologies take hold in the broader market," according to the report.

Source: C|NET

Cost? Mmmmm.

I was able to take an in-depth look at Office 2003 Professional over the long Thanksgiving weekend. I took down a ton of notes and plan to publish my opinions of the new suite. When that will get done, remains to be seen.

I like the new Outlook, although the new UI is very different and takes some getting used to. Thankfully you can buy Outlook 2003 separate. Is it worth $75? That is up to you.

I don't think people are gobbling this up because it does not include enough killer new features. What more are you going to do to make Word, Excel or PowerPoint better? The new Student Edition is a nice price point, but a lot of colleges have deals with M$ for their software. For example I can get a lot of M$ software, including Windows XP and Office 2003 for $10 at BGSU. It is even Bursarable!

Did they make Access easier to use? I took a critical look at Access 2003 because I like to have my facts strait about using FileMaker Pro vs. Access. I prefer FileMaker Pro, btw.

Originally posted on Breaking Windows.