Microsoft reveals retail pricing for Office 2010

Microsoft has revealed the retail prices for its upcoming Office 2010 productivity suite today, with the four versions selling for $99 to $499 USD.

The cheapest version, Office Professional Academic, will sell through most campus book stores for $99 and will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Access and Publisher. Office Home and Student, will sell for $149 boxed, or $119 as digital downloads with a "product key card."

Office Home and Business will cost $297 boxed or $199 with the key card. The most expensive, Office Professional, includes all the programs and premium technical support and will cost $499 boxed and $249 with the key car.

Each edition will include free access to Office Web Apps, Microsoft's slimmed down versions of the programs that can be accessed through an Internet browser.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 5 Jan 2010 12:33

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20 comments

Pride1

Open Office needs more exposure, then you'll see a price drop MS Office. Still I'll stick with Open Office

5.1.2010 16:33 #1

emugamer

Yes, Open Office is great. I recently introduced it to my parents. They love it.

5.1.2010 16:56 #2

ntense69

gotta love open office ms needs to get to grip and have something n office no one has then just maybe consumers will pay for something like that why pay 100 when you get the stuff for free

5.1.2010 17:26 #3

ZippyDSM

I like word best still 0-o

5.1.2010 20:08 #4

cyprusrom

There's always Abiword .

5.1.2010 20:54 #5

ZippyDSM

Originally posted by cyprusrom: There's always Abiword .zippy speak breaks things 0-o

5.1.2010 20:58 #6

bomber991

Originally posted by Pride1: Open Office needs more exposure, then you'll see a price drop MS Office. Still I'll stick with Open OfficeYep, OO kicks ass. Too bad my dumb dad won't use it. He still uses Word '97 because he bought it when he worked at dell for $30. He still thinks that when something is free it's either illegal or not any good.

5.1.2010 23:11 #7

cyprusrom

Quote:Originally posted by Pride1: Open Office needs more exposure, then you'll see a price drop MS Office. Still I'll stick with Open OfficeYep, OO kicks ass. Too bad my dumb dad won't use it. He still uses Word '97 because he bought it when he worked at dell for $30. He still thinks that when something is free it's either illegal or not any good.Does your dad watch OTA television? Tell him is pretty much free, and not illegal...)))

5.1.2010 23:14 #8

o0cynix0o

$499!?!?! Them's CRACK prices!!
Torrents abound...and are free.
Not saying anyone should pirate anything, but it is an option.

5.1.2010 23:20 #9

fgamer

They got a beta going on where you can use office 2010 free until October 2010.

6.1.2010 01:09 #10

kyo28

In all fairness, $499 (the most expensive package) is clearly aimed at businesses and not at home users.

Still, $297 is a very steep price for home users like myself, just to be able to use the newest version of Word, XL, Access and Outlook. I don't see myself investing that kind of money for a new Office every 2 or 3 years.

6.1.2010 02:39 #11

creaky

It's just silly money, monopoly prices. I do use Office 2007 but i won't be springing for a new version. Evolution can be used in linux as an alternative to Outlook (and very good it is too, don't know if it works under WIndows though), plus i spend all my time in webmail anyway ie hotmail & gmail. Outlook is too bloated, it even struggles on my C2D E6400 with 4GB of RAM. As to the other programs, there's Abiword and OpenOffice as others have said. So i'll stick with 2007 and use those alternatives too. Am also close to ditching my two Win7 installs with linux as Win7 buys me zilch over my XP and linux machines apart from eye candy, and it's not Win7 is all that anyway. Losing interest with MS products now, they're not providing anything that can't be done the same or better by the alternatives.

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6.1.2010 03:04 #12

emugamer

They need to continue making money. Selling new versions of Office to new businesses is a gold mine. But for those Companies that already have some form of Office for their hundreds of employees, uprading would be a waste. Office 2000 is what we use and does everything we need.

6.1.2010 07:54 #13

scum101

Yes creakster there is a windoze port of evolution, and apparently it's pretty much the same.

http://www.dipconsultants.com/evolution/

I know those people.. they do all kinds of funky open source ports.. seen them about for years.

So that's the mail side secured.. now as for junky M$ proprietary format nonsense.. people send me proprietrary formats (ooxml for instance) they get them back with a rather rude comment about interoperability.. and try opening it on any windoze junkheap running anything but that exact version of office.. especially when it's government who by law are obliged to be standards compliant.

For word.. abiword. http://www.abisource.com/
publisher.. scribus (also has a ghostscript dependency which is very cool) http://www.scribus.net/

and the rest of OO http://www.openoffice.org/ .. which is standard stuff for anybody outside the domestic market or retards who like losing customers.

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6.1.2010 07:57 #14

creaky

Good stuff.
Forgot to mention in my previous post that i only use Office 2007 as i had years of my scripts and info saved in Office 2007 PST files that i couldn't access via Office 2000, otherwise i'd still be happily using 2000. 2007 looks way more modern but that's all there is to it.

6.1.2010 08:00 #15

emugamer

lol, I guess Office 2007 was a very expensive skinning program :P

6.1.2010 10:17 #16

creaky

Indeed.
Being as i have access to all my 2007-specific info, MS can count me out as a customer for their shiny 2010 version. In fact i haven't even bothered to research what's on offer in 2010, i'm not interested even if it was free.

6.1.2010 10:40 #17

keith1993

The only thing that seems to have actually been added is is native 64-bit support but any gain over 07 will probably be lost in the added bloat.

6.1.2010 11:50 #18

creaky

That's sorted then, i don't bother with 64-bit at home anyway, only at work (where i've used 64-bit for 9 years)

6.1.2010 11:53 #19

scum101

Apparently they have been forced into this "new" version due to losing a patent case.. but the old one is being flogged off on the cheap.. with the infringing stolen software fully intact.. and that should be stopped immediately.

Since when can a company lose a court case and carry on regardless.. If I was the judge I would enforce it and demand all product be removed from sale.. forced compulsory updates made to existing systems or else.. no M$ product could be sold to anybody anywhere.. under penalty of a 800 BILLION �� sterling fine!!!

That would make these banged to rights proven guilty IP thieves sit up and take a little notice.

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6.1.2010 11:58 #20

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