Office 2008 More or Less
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I debated about whether Mac Office 2008 pricing would be worth a post. It's more of the same, not more or less; maybe that matters. |
MacBU (Microsoft Business Unit) wisely chose to keep pricing the same as Office 2004 and continue offering only three product versions. By contrast, with Office 2007, Microsoft raised pricing for enterprises and expanded to eight versions. Office 2008 should be less burdensome to purchase because the SKUs are cleaner, the features are clearer and pricing-to-feature comparisons are less confusing.
Microsoft's harder sell may be with consumers. The $149.95 Home & Student Edition is a good value compared to the comparable Standard Edition. But even with three licenses, Apple's iWork '08 comes with five licenses for about $50 less.
I switch back and forth between a Gateway Tablet PC running Windows Vista Ultimate and a MacBook Pro. On the Mac, I uninstalled Mac Office 2004 the day Apple released iWork '08. Apple's suite more than meets my basic writing, spreadsheet and presentation needs, and there is file compatibility with Office 2007 files. I'm a tougher customer than most consumers are likely to be.
That's not to deride Office 2008. The software is chock full of promise. MacBU chose to inherit some of the feature concepts from Office 2007 without overhauling the user interface. I'm watching to see market reaction to the hybrid approach.
Feature differences among versions are sensible. People buying Home and Student Edition won't get Exchange Server support for Entourage. The Office 2007 counterpart goes further, replacing Outlook for OneNote. Both approaches differentiate an important business feature and discourage piracy among small businesses.
MacBU plans to release Office 2008 final code in December and launch the flagship product in early January at Macworld. Assuming Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5 in October as planned, MacBU should be in position to make Office 2008 a showcase product for the new operating system.
Related Posts:
- Office 2007 Competitors Stack Up, Microsoft Watch, Sept. 18, 2007
- Art of Office, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 28, 2007
- Playing Apple's 'Numbers' Game, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 7, 2007
- Microsoft FUD Watch, 8-3-07, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 3, 2007
- Mac Office Loses Its Mojo, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 2, 2007
- The Pointless Converter Delay, Microsoft Watch, May 29, 2007
Comments (7)
But Joe, here we are at "Microsof Watch" , not "Consumer Watch " .
You are wasting valuable web space
Posted by John | September 25, 2007 9:28 PM
Joe
There is one other reason why there are less versions of MacBu you know .... there are less people wanting it !!!
Posted by Neil | September 25, 2007 10:57 PM
Nell:
'less' applies to uncounted things (e.g., 'sugar', 'mashed potato'); 'fewer' applies to counted things (e.g., 'versions', 'people').
Microsoft made a bad mistake releasing Vista in such a poor state that it is being shunned by the punters even when pre-installed. The large number of versions - the lower-priced ones lacking significant features - and the price hike were also mistakes. The number of versions is also a strike against Office 2007, which (new interface apart) is just a rehash of previous versions.
At least, Mac users now have a viable alternative that is polished. Windows users have to wait or switch Mac.
Posted by A Sanders | September 26, 2007 10:43 AM
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2186653,00.asp
"Lotus Symphony, downloadable in a free beta version, consists of the OpenOffice.org engines for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, but comes dressed in a sleek, professional interface that looks far better than the ugly and amateurish one of the original OpenOffice. Compared with Microsoft's high-priced spread in Office 2007, IBM's freeware feels slightly bug-rich and feature-thin, but the price is right at zero dollars—compared with $400 for the standard edition of Office 2007. Lotus Symphony can save files in Microsoft Office format, though by default, it uses the open-source Open Document Format (ODF) standard. Unlike Microsoft Office, it won't surprise you by reformatting your documents in ways you don't expect."
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Truly, it's another excellent alternative to MS office , actually I am trying it and ...I am
really impressed.
Posted by Marco | September 26, 2007 11:18 AM
Colonel Sanders
"Microsoft made a bad mistake releasing Vista in such a poor state".
I was talking about MS office ...not Vista, clean your glasses colonel.
And just for you ... there are fewer versions of MacBu because there a fewer users ! :)
Posted by Neil | September 26, 2007 11:49 PM
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/26/IBM-says-Symphony-downloaded-100000-times-in-first-week_1.html
IBM: Symphony downloaded 100,000 times in first week
"To be honest, we were surprised at the speed with which people jumped on this," said Mike Rhodin, general manager of both IBM Collaboration and Lotus Software, in an interview Wednesday. To keep up with the number of people interested in downloading Symphony, IBM tripled the number of download servers it had for the suite of productivity applications in the first few days of its release, he said.
Posted by Marco | September 27, 2007 8:12 PM
http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/09/28/1557232.shtml
Title; Trouble With MS Genuine Office Validation
Quote from the link; ""Here's another little gotcha with Microsoft license validation, discovered by security and PowerShell expert Tyson Kopczynski. The Microsoft Office 2007 add-on site refuses to download legitimate add-ons for Office 2007 when a legitimate — but not yet activated — additional Microsoft product is installed on the computer."
Posted by chips | September 28, 2007 7:31 PM