The headline says it all: Microsoft Lync for Mac 2011, the Apple-friendly version of the unified communications client that’s at the heart of Microsoft Office 365, has been released to manufacturing ahead of an October launch.

Naturally, Lync is just the client, and enterprise users will need to connect it to a running Lync service — whether it’s Microsoft Lync Server 2010 or Microsoft Lync Online, the cloud-hosted component and an integral part of the Office 365 suite. But the upshot is that Apple users will be able to take advantage of Microsoft’s instant messaging/videoconferencing/voice chatting platform.

This release goes a long, long way toward addressing a problem which I, personally, had with Microsoft Office 365: For a service that was supposed to bring a true cloud computing solution to enterprises, you sure need a lot of other Microsoft products to take full advantage. But with this announcement, the door is opened for true cross-platform support.

There’s still a long way to go, and I maintain my belief that if you’re going to call something a cloud solution, it had better work entirely in a browser and require little or no extra installable applications. All the same, though, opening the door to Mac users is a step in the right direction — and may be the extra little bit needed for cloud service providers to make the sale.

I’m looking forward to taking Lync 2011 for a Mac OS X test run, so stay tuned to TalkinCloud for updates.