Microsoft to charge for Office beta

Microsoft plans next week to charge a nominal fee for Office 2007 Beta 2 downloads, a move that runs counter to the practice held by most software companies.

Consumers who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged $1.50 per download, beginning next Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT, a Microsoft representative said.

"Since the end of May, Beta 2 has been downloaded more than 3 million times...That's 500 percent more than what was expected," the representative said. "The fee helps offset the cost of downloading from the servers."

Although Microsoft's Information Worker Product Management Group decided to initiate a fee for new users of Beta 2, the "technical refresh," or update, for current users of the software will remain free, the representative said.

Those who want to test drive Beta 2 to see how it works can access the software for free. But if they want to test it against their internal systems, a download or the CD is required.

The fee marks the first time Microsoft has charged for a download version of an Office beta, the representative said, noting that customers have long had to pay the shipping and handling costs for CD versions of betas.

[Hep Cat]

Oh, Come Off it, Microsoft!

One article today quotes Robbie Bach's intention to spend
Microsoft's money until the cows come home in order to
outspend Apple - all in the name of winning the portable media
player crown.

This article quotes a Microsoft representative claiming that the
$1.50/download of Office is being done to defray costs.

Even better - neither of your completely non-critical articles
says anything about Microsoft's prior predatory business
practices or their willingness to use their massive Office and
Windows-funded piggy bank as a resource for beating up on the
superior competition.

Along with yesterday's press-release rewrite - uh, I mean blog
post about how wonderful Intel's core 2 Duo is, is there anything
News.com can be critical about except for Apple?

I think the answer has a lot to do with who buys ad space on
your web site.

[GatesOfHell]

To offset costs?

To offset costs of what? Zune?

And they're just SO strapped for cash, aren't they?

[Jamie_Foster]

Perverse

This is unbelievable. Microsoft should be paying beta testers for helping find bugs and providing feedback. This move was no doubt initiated by some MS beancounter who has no concept of customer goodwill/relations. Considering that office can cost £400 a copy this totally sucks. If MS had a patent for fresh air they would charge for breathing.

[drblank1]

Anyone that pays money for a Beta is just plain stupid

Typical Microsoft BS, they make people pay for their crappy
software. They can't even make their OS secure and virus free.
150,000 viruses and counting. I wonder how many bad lines of
code in Vista and Office. I think Microsoft should be broken up.
Ballmer is out of his cotten picking mind to charge for beta
software, but I guess there are idiots out there that will pay for it.

[System Tyrant]

I remember...

well, I think I remember you had to pay to get Windows XP beta back in the day.

[JohnUSAF]

Their servers should be safe now

Microsoft can expect a significant reduction in server requests now, maybe as little as .... 0. I usually do not like to bash Microsoft but c'mon this really is pathetic.

[pmbx]

Well they...

will NEED that money to offset the 100 millions that they intend to
lose over the next 5 years on Zune! Why should they pay for their
stupidity when consumers and investors can?

[imacpwr]

$1.50..?!?! Hardly seems worth charging..

Have to check my calender, surely it can't be April 1 already..!! Besides, only a moron would pay for a BETA..!!!!!

[omaryak]

$2.83 billion not enough profit?

Microsoft must be really having to cut back after its profit fell 24% in the second quarter. I was about to criticize the company for making people pay for a buggy product that might crash their computer, but then I realized that's their business model.

[grandmasterdibbler]

What!?

For a company with a 20 billion dollar war chest they definitely DO NOT need to charge for downloads!
2.83b $ profit just not enough any more?

[groyal]

They have to pay for Zune some how

Lets face it Microsoft will have to spend over $1 Billion to make a dent in the Ipod market share. They have to pay for it some how.

[moocna]

Has anyone confirmed this

I just did a quick msn search of the site microsoft.com and it can't find anything about charging for a beta. Is there any reliable source that can confirm this?

[ServedUp]

Elements of Flip3d.

I'd deem the download worth the buck and a half, if in some way it
had elements of flip3d in it. I just love that gimmicky Vista eye
candy stuff, even down to the name.

Say it with me. Flliiiiippp Thhhreeeeee DEeeeeeee!

Now who doesn't thinks thats cool?

[Anysia]

Paying for beta download for software that is 'timebombed'?

Is MicroSoft nuts? Or just that greedy?

Office 2007 Beta clearly states that it will no longer or have limited function after February 2007 (or at least that is what it says on the CD of it I got with my PC World magazine).

Jeeze, I would suggest anyone who wants to try the Beta version get the magazine. At least you get a good read along with it.

[Jim Hubbard]

Here's how Microsoft can ELIMINATE the dl costs....

First, make it only available to MSDN subscribers, then ignore it as it is passed around via bit torrents.

[gerardogerardo80]

It's fair and fine with me.

The ones who have this hate-love affair with Microsoft more than deserve it, you created the mounster. There are other Operating Systems and office products for free that work well (more secure and stable than MS) if you use MS is because you want. You have to enjoy the abuse, the constant problems, the trojan horses, spyware, the miners, worms, viruses.

If on top that, knowing the security issues of MS Office Products you feel is worth it to install it in your machine, the small fee is nothing compared to what the risk of using it can cost you.

[Madrone]

People are clueless about how large companys work.

Just because a company is sucessful like microsoft, doesn't mean divisions are free to overspend their budgets.

If the people who are running the office Beta was given 500 million to do this, and it costs 600 million, it wont hurt microsofts bottom line very much, but whoever is in charge might not have a job as long.

Each Division/Project will have a budget, to insure maximum profitablity for the company, overall you wont notice money being drained out of 13 billion dollars in profit, but the way you make it so high is by not letting everyone leak a little bit of money.

[microsoft slayer]

use Open Office

why pay for a piece of crap vaporware?

[PCTechGuy]

With all their billions of dollars of profit

With all the billions of dollars that MS makes in profits, and all the billions that Bill and Melinda give away, they think they have to charge $1.50 to download the Office Beta? They're out of their fricking minds. Can everyone spell G-R-E-E-D?

[Alex Todd]

Tut Tut

The public has to pay to test Microsoft's software and report back any errors !!!!

How about they pay us $1.50 each time outlook 2007 crashes and Drwatson sends a report back to them.

Why cant they use bit torrent to distribute their flaky software that we are making better for THEM.