Apple Computer and Sun Microsystem are teaming up to release a version of the popular StarOffice productivity office application suite for Mac OS X.

Sun continues to look for hardware allies in its battle to gain popularity for StarOffice. So far no major PC makers have pledged to heavily promote Star Office.

This looks like a good situation for both companies as Apple needs to take on friends to help counter its contentious relationship with Microsoft who claims that they have continued to struggle with sales of Office for Mac. Microsoft claims that since its release only 300,000 copies of Mac office have sold.

Sun's name in the corporate market, along with StarOffice's cross-platform support and its ability to work with Office file formats could pose a growing threat to Microsoft. Sun is also considering offering StarOffice for free, where Office v .X typically costs $300 to $500.

It seems that the ultimate solution would be for Apple to bundle StarOffice with every Mac sold. Of course such an arrangement would turn up the heat on Microsoft for sure.