In a survey sent to current Intuit customers, company officials pose the following request: "Please read the following description of a product that Intuit could potentially offer in the future, then answer the questions that follow."

The survey continues, "Introducing new QuickBooks Pro 5.0 Edition for Mac. This upgrade provides valuable tools to manage your business finances."

Spilling the Beans

Among the features listed in a potential OS X release are the ability to modify fonts, choose additional fields and insert a company logo in forms. The survey also notes "improved reporting options" that allow the user to change the order of columns via drag-and-drop functionality.

Intuit also spills the beans on possible pricing with the question, "If this product were available at a price of US$249, with an upgrade rebate of $70, resulting in an after-rebate price of $179, how likely do you think you would be to purchase this within the next year or so?"

The survey goes on to ask what reasons would most likely compel customers to purchase QuickBooks Pro 5.0 (including an option of OS X compatibility), and requests ranking for importance of new features.

Cancelled - For Now

In a statement to Mac users, Intuit officials said, "[We] do not currently have plans to develop QuickBooks Financial Software, Online Edition for a Macintosh-based browser or a new version of the QuickBooks desktop software for the Mac platform."

The company notes that it still markets QuickBooks 4.0, the last version of the software developed for the Mac platform, which runs under Mac OS 9 and in the Classic environment in OS X.

The company provides the disclaimer, "[Intuit] continue[s] to watch market and platform trends as it makes product development decisions."

Mind Your Own OS

Since Intuit's decision to stop developing new versions of QuickBooks for the Mac, the market has become occupied by a handful of ambitious competitors. The most prominent of these is MYOB's AccountEdge software.

The cross-platform tool includes a conversion assistant for customers looking to transition from older versions of QuickBooks.

In Intuit's absence from the Mac scene, Apple has latched onto MYOB's AccountEdge, offering introduction and training seminars on the software at its retail stores.

Nothing Definite

"Intuit is always surveying customers. Every year we check in with customers about topics we hear about and evaluate the feasibility," Intuit spokesperson Stacy Wilkinson told NewsFactor. "I'm not aware of any definitive plans for an OSX release of QuickBooks."

However, the dominant financial planning and tracking software company is not unfamiliar with the OS X operating system. Intuit currently develops its flagship consumer software package, Quicken Deluxe 2002, for Mac OS X.