Comments on: $59 Office 07 launches in US, relaunch in AU soon

By: Rob Stevens

Rob Stevens — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:52:02 +0000

Microsoft is showing an unusual amount of savvy here. I’ll tell you for an absolute fact that the most prolific pirates are students. They NEED to use the software in order to develop the skills that will be in demand in the workforce, and that doesn’t mean “student” versions … you need to be using the exact same software.

That means that since they can’t afford to buy a $700 software suite, they have little choice but to pirate the software, if only to better their exposure. $69, on the other hand, is way to good to pass up. Absolutely brilliant move.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:35:49 +0000

“Woah… it’s available in the UK too! Finally.

I’m confused though… It’s the 12/09 today, but it says that it’s not available until 12/09.”

It’s a silly americanised date, i.e. MM/DD/YYYY. So it means December 9th, *not* September 12th.

Why they do that I have no idea – it makes no sense. Probably because some silly American in power proposed it and it stuck.

By: Andre Da Costa

Andre Da Costa — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:16:55 +0000

Michael, SharePoint Designer is not included in any of the Office 2007 Suites. The last suite that bundled FrontPage (SharePoint Designer is FP’s successor)was Office 2000 Premium. There was a FrontPage 2002 bundle with a Special Edition of Office XP for a limited time, but it was included on a separate CD, but there was also a corporate SKU that included it called Office XP Professional with FrontPage. Expression Web and SharePoint Designer should co-exist just fine. SPD works best with SharePoint Team sites while Expression Web is more targetted at standalone web designers (aka Adobe Dreamweaver).

As for the UK pricing, you call £599 expensive? Get ready for Jamaican pricing for Office 2007 Ultimate:

US $1 equals Jamaican $70

Multiply $70 Jamaican dollars by US $699 which would equal Jamaican $48,930 for Office 2007 Ultimate. Thats why anyone who buys Office here legitimately often opts for the Student SKU or Pro OEM.

By: Michael Mc

Michael Mc — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:42:52 +0000

What happens if you already have Expression Web installed and then you install Office Ultimate with Microsoft SharePoint Designer? Does SharePoint Designer overwrite Expression?

The two programs look almost identical.

@Andre Da Costa:
If you think US $699 is a lot for a student to pay, Microsoft Office Ultimate in the UK costs £599. That’s US $1216.57.

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Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:33:40 +0000

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By: Andre Da Costa

Andre Da Costa — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:33:19 +0000

I don’t know of any ’student’ in their right mind anyway who would pay US $699 for Office 2007 Ultimate, so this is probably the best way to get them to buy it. If you can’t get them to buy the FPP, at least you will have a chance with say the upgrade pricing for Office 14 Ultimate when that comes out. Hey, it worked on me, I bought Office 97 Professional (FPP), Office 2000 Premium (Upgrade), Office XP Professional (Upgrade), got Office ‘03 Pro free and bought Office Home and Student which comes with 3 household licenses.

This is definitely a great opportunity to achieve more users too, especially with the new Office Fluent which everybody seems just love, this will certainly create some new allegiances amongst the MS Office fold for years to come.

By: RC

RC — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:21:18 +0000

I got Office 2003 or whatever years ago for about $100. $40 more, but it was still a big discount. I think their student prices have been good for quite awhile. Obviously this is much better though.

By: Andrew M.

Andrew M. — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:41:50 +0000

It’s like legal pirating! Sweet.

I got in on the PowerTogether offer last year on luck alone, but I’m not about to pass up getting in on this. I already sent the link to all my fraternity and campus group members. This is fantastic especially considering the fact that not every lab on campus even has Office 2007, but I’ve been using it since the beta and its annoying when your group members can’t open your files.

Way to go Microsoft…no only if Adobe would follow suit and let go of my wallet on that Master Collection…hmmm.

By: Simon North

Simon North — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:32:00 +0000

It’s great that Microsoft are finally offering something like this, £300 for an office suite is too much to pay so it is good that Microsoft have seen this and are doing something about it. I already have it but if I didn’t then I would definitely have brought it through this scheme. Plus I’m a Linux user so I use Open Office.

By: reader

reader — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:19:19 +0000

AWESOME. Finally. Thanks for the great news, Long!