Office 2008 for Macs Coming In 3 Editions
Microsoft detailed the editions and pricing for the upcoming Office 2008, the new version of Microsoft Office coming soon for the Mac. They are:
- Mac Office 2008: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage (email and scheduling). $399.95/$239.95 upgrade
- Mac Office 2008 Home and Student Edition: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, but without the ability to connect to an Exchange email server and Automator support, but with 3 non-commercial licenses. $149.95
- Mac Office 2008 Special Media Edition: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, plus Expression Media. $499.95/$299.95 upgrade
Frankly, the cost of the regular edition is obscene, completely not worth a 166% premium over the Home and Student Edition, but only adding Exchange support. Microsoft is penalizing businesses that have invested in Exchange Servers to the tune of $250 per employee, an insult to those customers, and it should reduce the price at least $100, probably $200.
If you could outfit three computers with Office 2008 for $150 without Exchange, or $1200 with Exchange, would you buy it? Of course not, and its ridiculous that Microsoft would think this pricing works. Frankly, the difference between the three licenses and the Exchange support is a fair trade-off, and the Home and Student and standard editions should just cost the same. Unless the standard edition contains another advantage, it’s highway robbery, plain and simple.
The Exchange price is bad, but the vast majority of companies using Exchange have site licenses so it’s not as big a deal as you make it out to be. The people being hit by this are the SBS users. MS is obviously not too fond of people using Macs in MS-based small business environments…
Comment by Jeremy | October 10, 2007