Microsoft hints at another cheap Office option

In addition to the bare-bones Office 2010 Starter that will come bundled on many new PCs, starting next year, Microsoft looks to have another low-cost option up its sleeve.

As part of the announcement of Office Starter on Thursday, Microsoft said consumers will be able to go to retailers and get a "product key card" with a code to upgrade to a full version of Office, such as the Home and Student, Home and Business, and Professional versions.

(Credit: Microsoft)

If you look closely at the image for the Office Home and Student card, it says "for one preloaded PC only." Now, typically, Office Home and Student is licensed for up to three PCs. That means that this card, which is good for only one PC, has the potential to be cheaper than the standard retail package, which includes a DVD copy and is good for three computers.

Microsoft isn't talking licensing details yet for Home and Student, but I'm told by those in the know that my logic is correct. Office 2010, in all its versions, is set to debut next year, with a beta test version of the product due later this year.

The software maker is clearly looking for as many ways as possible to put the latest version of Office in the hands of those willing to be legitimate users. In addition to the client-based Office 2010 versions, Microsoft also plans its Office Web Applications, browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Those products will be free and ad-supported for consumers, offered as part of Windows Live.

The other interesting part of Thursday's announcement is the "click to run" download method, which allows users to download Office over the Web but quickly get started before all the code has run. That method uses application virtualization. A side benefit is that such an installation can constantly be checking for updates and keeping itself current.

Although Vice President Takeshi Numoto told CNET yesterday that Microsoft had nothing new to announce on the subscription front, the click-to-run approach would seem an excellent technology to use to power a subscription version of Office (or any other Microsoft product, for that matter).

There was a subscription version of Office 2007, dubbed Equitpt, but that product also came bundled with Windows Live OneCare and was scrapped, as Microsoft discontinued OneCare.

Microsoft has spent years looking for new ways to sell Office, exploring everything from ad-funded software to prepaid cards good for a certain number of months of Office use.

[Super2online]

All of these options bode well for Microsoft. Each one has it's own special appeal, and should fair well with differing segments of the market. It seems to me that when you combine the enhancements to the software and the new marketing initiatives, they are making all the right moves to stay ahead of the competition.

[Random_Walk]

Wow - not a bad idea. It appears that Google Apps, OOo, iWork, and all the other competition is starting to make Microsoft sweat a little.

Before the Koolaid-drinking campers among us start shouting "troll!", know that this is actually a good thing. Anything that fosters active and healthy competition is a good thing.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I would disagree with this plan- not that the plan isn't good- it is, but now there are several options available and by different methods which may lead to confusion on what program is for what promotion, etc.

Heck, even I don't quite follow excatly which promotion is being focused on at this point.

[xenophod]

Random_Walk - you are spot on. Competition is a good thing. Microsoft got fat and happy and OO and others have made them start looking in the rear view mirror again. Hopefully they also wise up and realize that businesses, not just home & student users are looking at other options.

[bbneo2]

Microsoft's bloatware product line is going to continue to drag them into the crapper.
Now they are trying to give it away for free.

It sucks. It's slow, and inefficient with your time and computer resources. C'est la vie.

Thank you Google. Thank you Open Office.

[censorshipblows]

Ummmm no thanks, I'll stick with Google Docs.

[wixostrix]

Please, I work at Salesforce.com and we use Google Docs like 90% of the time for collaborative purposes. It f**king sucks. I mean the collaboration is good but could be better and if your changing formatting and stuff you have to be super careful because it is very easy to for the formating and alignment of the whole document to is screwed. It works, but I could be way better.

[cary1]

I am looking forward to browser based Office. That will make my work so much easier

[darkebinary]

I'm curious to know how. Not that I'm doubting you as I have no idea what you do for a living, but I see no advantage in browser based applications unless you're someone who is always using shared PCs, like in a college computer lab.

[censorshipblows]

darkebinary, how about if you're collaborating? Much easier to do in the cloud.

[cayhorstmann]

The advantage is that you can easily share your documents, avoiding the nightmare of an inbox filled with a dozen versions of the same document. At least that's the advantage with Google docs--don't know if Microsoft will allow collaboration with the free version.

[cary1]

@darkebinary

Lot of times, I have to share files with different people which makes it difficult to track the latest version. Google Docs in theory can solve the problem, but it is has very basic feature set and is not fully compatible with Office documents. That's why it will be nice if MS Office is available online.

[darkebinary]

Ahh, I can see your point there. We used EMC eRooms and eventually SharePoint for that kind of functionality, but if you didn't have something like that available I could see how a web based office system would be helpful. Thanks for elaborating.

[xenophod]

Random_Walk - you are spot on. Competition is a good thing. Microsoft got fat and happy and OO and others have made them start looking in the rear view mirror again. Hopefully they also wise up and realize that businesses, not just home & student users are looking at other options.

[EvanSei]

if they make the price reasonable I will get it, I have ben wanting office home and student for a while now (trial version just ran out) but $140 is ridiculous, google docs is free,open office is free, works is free (pre-installed) and iwork is reasonable why does MS feel the need to milk us lower the price make some deals. Sure they have a student discount but if you have ever seen the deal it is ****, MS start doing what apple is doing with their student discount give ALL students a discount (k-12, college), not all of us are college students, and not all of us have an email ending in "edu." .

[zeroplane]

nope still going to go with Open Office and google docs.. never going to pay for office productivity software ever again.. And if Open Office because a pay to play I am sure there will be other open source alternatives.

[JCPayne]

Open Office still beats that "price" and still does everything I need. No thanks Ballmer and crew.

[beat_elite]

As long as i'm not paying anything more than $70 for Office 2010 then I might feel a little better about Office software. However, I'm sticking with OOo for now.

How much more junk can you put into Office? It was bloated 10 years ago. I guess running it through a browser loads the extra garbage on someone else's machine, but this is a BAD idea. Software is a product, not a service. You buy it - you don't rent it - and you don't need no stinkin' upgrade.

[shellcodes_coder]

All the editions of office except starter will come with ultra-cool OneNote :)

[aafuss]

As long MS considers that many people don't need to upgrade ther PC's-they should offer a home version of Office at $39 (Works cost this much).

[rmullen0]

Why would I want this when I can get OpenOffice for free? The new version of Office doesn't even have a stinking menu!!!!

[firefoxluva95]

Rumor has it that eventually OpenOffice won't either. Ribbons rule!

[mlcgruhlke]

I have an idea that's even better than this - forget Microsoft and download OpenOffice.org. It is the office pack of choice for Linux and Mac users. Why pay for a bloated MS program when you can have the same thing free??? Open source software will be the eventual undoing of conglomerates such as Microsoft and Apple.

[lewac]

we agree... we abandoned win2000 several years ago and now only "borrow" a system that is compatible for turbotax... turbotax does not yet install under WINE unfortunately. we're wondering if the makers of this type of proprietary software know that they can sell their product to linux users if the thing runs under WINE?