experience group type operating unit of microsoft industry computer software founded january 7 1997 headquarters redmond washington united states key people eric wilfrid general manager products microsoft office microsoft messenger remote desktop client revenue 350 million 2008 1 number of employees 180 2008 1 website www.microsoft.com mac apple productivity experience group known as apex 2 is an operating unit of microsoft that as of 2009 is the largest software developer outside of apple inc. for the os x ios operating system . 3 formed as macintosh business unit on january 7 1997 4 it was initially composed of over 100 individuals from the existing cross platform word excel and powerpoint teams in microsoft s office division and grew to 180 people the next year with the addition of the internet explorer for mac and outlook express for mac teams . in 2000 it moved from the office division to the specialized devices and applications group inside the entertainment and devices division 3 5 and is now back inside the microsoft office division . contents 1 history 2 software 3 references 4 external links history edit prior to the creation of the mac bu microsoft had developed macintosh software starting in 1984 with word 1.0 for macintosh . during the early and mid 1990s microsoft s word excel and powerpoint teams simultaneously developed windows and macintosh versions of these applications but after releasing office 97 for windows microsoft decided in january 1997 to form a separate macintosh business unit to focus on creating applications optimized for the macintosh platform . in august 1997 as part of a broader partnership agreement with apple microsoft committed to continue developing and supporting macintosh software for at least 5 more years renewing this pledge on january 10 2006 at the macworld conference & expo . citation needed ben waldman was the mac bu s founder and first general manager gm 4 serving from its inception in january 1997 through january 2000 when he was succeeded by kevin browne who served through december 18 2002 and roz ho who served from december 18 2002 to june 8 2007 ; after that craig eisler became the gm . 6 7 software edit apex develops os x and ios versions of microsoft office and onenote . previously developed software by the mac bu include internet explorer development ceased in 2003 8 virtual pc 9 and the msn for mac os x browser cancelled may 31 2005 . 10 references edit references a b jon fortt march 25 2008 . microsoft looks to cash in on the iphone . fortune big tech blog . retrieved 2008 04 03 . explore our teams microsoft careers office teams a b oliver sam april 2 2009 . microsoft optimistic about office making its way to iphone . appleinsider . retrieved 2010 08 30 . a b microsoft january 7 1997 . microsoft announces new macintosh product unit . microsoft press release . retrieved 2007 02 09 . microsoft 2010 form 10 k . united states securities and exchange commission . 2010 07 30 . p. 8 . retrieved 2010 08 05 . microsoft december 18 2002 . microsoft appoints seasoned leader as macintosh business unit general manager . microsoft press release . retrieved 2007 02 09 . craig eisler june 8 2007 . hello from the new general manager of the macintosh business unit craig eisler . retrieved 2007 06 10 . microsoft october 2006 . internet explorer for mac no longer available for download . microsoft.com . archived from the original on 2007 03 03 . retrieved 2007 03 04 . peter cohen august 7 2006 . wwdc microsoft kills virtual pc for mac . macworld . retrieved 2007 03 04 . fried ina march 11 2005 . microsoft to kill msn for the mac . zdnet . cbs interactive . retrieved 2010 08 30 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title apple productivity experience group & oldid 737652946 categories microsoft divisionsmac software companies1997 establishments in washington state companies based in redmond washingtonsoftware companies established in 1997hidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from august 2010 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages slenska edit links this page was last modified on 4 september 2016 at 06 39 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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