Microsoft's decision to discontinue OneCare in favor of a new free antivirus product also means an end to Equipt, a $69-per-year subscription version of Office and OneCare that the company had been selling on the shelves of Circuit City.
A box shot of the Equipt product, which only briefly has graced Circuit City's shelves.
(Credit: Microsoft/Circuit City)The copies will be headed out of retail stores in the coming weeks, although the subscription will run through some time next year. But since Microsoft plans to offer free licenses of Office to Equipt customers when their subscriptions end, those existing copies look like a pretty good deal for those who need Office Home and Student--the version of Office included in Equipt.
The company had announced Equipt as something tailored for so-called "tech benches"--services like Best Buy's Geek Squad. However, in the U.S., Circuit City was the only retailer that had started selling Equipt.
Microsoft had hoped to capitalize on the fact that people were already buying subscription security software to upsell them on Equipt. But with Microsoft now planning on giving away security software, that opportunity appears to have gone away.
"It was a very difficult decision for us to shut down Equipt but the fact of the matter is there is this higher order need (to offer free antivirus software)," said group product manager Bryson Gordon. Gordon declined to say how many Equipt subscribers there are, but said the product had met internal sales goals.
"The decision to end-of-life Equipt was not in any way based with sales performance," he said.
Equipt, initially known by the code name Albany, is unlikely to be the last Office subscription service, particularly as Microsoft moves into Web-based versions of its productivity software. The company has also sold prepaid Office subscription cards in some countries.
"What we really are going to turn our attention to is other places where we can build a software plus service offering of Office like we sold on a subscription basis," Gordon said.
As for existing Equipt subscribers, they not only will get a free license to Office Home and Student, they can also call and cancel their subscription, get a pro-rated refund and still get the copy of Office. Gordon said that Equipt buyers tended to be Microsoft's early adopters and said that "We really want to make sure they are taken care of."
LAS VEGAS--Asked about the state of the U.S. economy, Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson said on Tuesday that it is clearly a concern.
"People that are getting their first (home heating) oil bills at $3 a gallon," he said, even as the U.S. mortgage crisis continues to hang over the economy. "The share of mind that the 'r word' is getting in the media has us concerned," he said, alluding to but not uttering, the word recession.
But Anderson said it was the transition to digital television that posed the biggest threat to his industry, warning of the dangers if consumers find themselves having TVs that don't work once the broadcasters end their analog signals in February of 2009.
"We're very nervous about the potential risk," Anderson said. "I think the industry will be damaged if we as an industry don't handle this well."
At the Consumer Electroncis Show on Tuesday, CEA Chief Gary Shapiro asks retail executives, including the heads of Best Buy and Circuit City, for their views on the U.S. economy, the digital TV transition, and other issues.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)His comments came as part of a panel discussion of several retail executives at the Consumer Electronics Show here.
Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover, meanwhile, was most concerned with his own company's performance, which has lagged the industry.
"I'm not smiling," Schoonover said, after Anderson and other retail executives beamed at their own growth last year.
"We're trying to fix the plan while flying the plane," he said. "It proved to be more challenging than I think any of us estimated."
Circuit City posted a steep quarterly loss on Friday and warned the operating losses will continue into the current quarter, which includes the bulk of the holiday shopping season, traditionally when retailers make most of their money.
"We are very dissatisfied with our third quarter results," Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover said in a statement, adding that the company saw fewer sales of profitable items like accessories, services, and extended warranties.
"We believe that these issues are primarily self-induced and are within our control to improve," he said.
I can't say I was surprised given my Black Friday experience at Circuit City. My partner and I waited for hours in line, not because there were so many customers, but because its system for handling a crowd was so poor.
In addition to the $208 million loss from continuing operations that Circuit City posted for the quarter ending November 30, it said it will have a "modest" loss for the current quarter, which spans through February.
My partner and I decided to brave the Black Friday crowds and got up at 6 a.m. to do some bargain hunting.
We planned to head to Circuit City first, given that its day-after-Thanksgiving sale had the most things we wanted. When we arrived at the suburban Los Angeles store--nearly two hours after the store had opened--there was a long line of people just waiting to get in the store.
Customers, including AJ, wait in line at Circuit City in Van Nuys.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET Networks)Figuring that the most-sought-after items were likely gone anyway and that the line might be shorter in a few hours, we headed to the nearby Best Buy in Sherman Oaks. The parking lot was certainly well filled and the store busy, but neither was overflowing. I'm sure there were plenty of people in line at 3 a.m. for the cheap flat-panel TVs and other doorbusters. But when we got there, some of the smaller items were still available and we walked out with $40 worth of stuff, including one season of the Office, the movie Borat and a Wii game that AJ wanted.
We moved on to Target, which didn't even seem busy for a weekend day. I picked up another season of the office and a couple of shirts and we made one other stop, before heading back to Circuit City. This time, we made it in without a line. Nearly the whole store, though, was filled with people waiting in line. After a quick assessment, AJ grabbed a spot in line while I picked up a few items from our list, including a 2GB flash drive for $7.99 and some West Wing and NYPD Blue seasons for around $15 apiece.
After half an hour, AJ had hardly moved forward in line. I left to get him a cup of coffee and returned 20 minutes later and he had still only inched forward in line. We tried to investigate the source of the holdup.
Whereas Best Buy had specific lines for the types of products people were buying, Circuit City had the lone checker for each line, head throughout the store to pickup big ticket items, such as a PlayStation 3 that someone ahead of us wanted. That move, along with what seemed to be the most outdated computer system I'd seen at a electronics retailer in some time, slowed things to a crawl.
The sign on the floor at Circuit City read 'wait,' and wait we did.
(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET News.com)I took the time to interview a few of my comrades in line. Matt Kaplan of Sherman Oaks had just a few DVDs, but told a friend on his cell phone that at that point it had become "a matter of principle," though he told me he was probably not saving enough to justify such a long wait.
A few spots further in the line, Nestor Gomez of Van Nuys said he didn't mind such a long wait, saying the price for two Acer laptops justified the standstill.
We were finally nearing the register, so I put my notepad away. But as we were only a couple of people away from finally checking out, I noticed that some people were breezing through a nearby register. What had been assumed to be a "cash only" line was actually an available checkout spot, though the place had no means to handle a queue and was thus not advertising its services.
Checking out our dozen items took him some time, but still saved us probably another 15 minutes over the line in which we had been standing. Who knows how much more time might have been saved for all concerned with a bit more organization. What were your Black Friday experiences like?
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