Office 2010 SA pricing uncertain
Microsoft recently announced their pricing for the range of Office 2010 products which are due to be available in South Africa in June. Office 2010 Home and Student will come with the four core programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. This will sell for US$149 (R1,089) with a three computer license. Office 2010 Home and Business, containing the core programs along with Outlook, will sell for US$297 (R2,170).
Office 2010 Professional features Outlook, Publisher, Access and premium technical support, along with the core programs, and will sell for US$499 (R3,646). Home and Student licenses are currently set at US$119 (R869), Home and Business at US$199 (R1,454), and Professional at $249 (R1,822).
However, Albie Bester, Information Worker Lead at Microsoft SA, said that currently no pricing information for the South African market is available, but it “certainly won’t be more than the international pricing”.
Office 2010 Starter will be pre-installed on OEM machines, and although free to use, it will be advert supported. A product key can be purchased online or from a retail store to upgrade the software to one of the full versions of the suite.
Bester also confirmed that the education-only version of the product, Office 2010 Professional Academic, will be available in South Africa. The current international pricing is set at US$99 (R723). Along with the core programs, Access, Outlook and Publisher are included.
In 2008 Microsoft SA was able to orchestrate a deal which saw Office 2007 Home and Student being heavily discounted. Bester said that, “We are hoping this trend will continue with [Office 2010] Home and Student.”
Bester also confirmed that the recent court order that has barred Microsoft from selling the Office 2007 range of products will not have implications for the sale of Office 2010 products. Bester explained that this is because Office 2010 does not contain the patented XML technology that was contested in the court case.
Microsoft Office 2010 pricing in SA – comments and views
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