by , 1:40 PM EDT, May 13th, 2008

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that sales for Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac have been soaring, selling faster than any previous version of the suite.

Microsoft also reaffirmed its commitment to future products for the Mac and said that the current version of Office for Mac is selling faster than any previous version for the Mac in the last 19 years.

The Mac BU also said that they are releasing service pack SP1 for the suite at noon Pacific Time.

"The velocity of sales for Office 2008 is nearly three times as compared with the launch sales of Office 2004." said Craig Eisler, general manager of the Mac BU at Microsoft

C|Net Australia cited a Microsoft marketing manager who, while declining to give all the credit to soaring Mac sales, said, "Of course that's one of the components that is helping us."

Fortune magazine has estimated that Microsoft has had annual revenues in the past of about US$350M for the Mac productivity suite with profits as high as $200M. In addition, the NPG group has reported that 20 percent of Microsoft Office's U.S retail sales are the Mac version.

As those numbers continue to grow, thanks to Mac sales, Microsoft will have even more reason to raise its commitment to the product. That could be one reason behind the announcement of VBA support in the next version.