Microsoft to sell Office, OneCare for $70 a year

By JESSICA MINTZ , AP Technology Writer, Technology / Software

(AP) -- Microsoft Corp. will begin selling its Office programs to consumers on a subscription basis starting mid-July, in a bid to reach thrifty PC buyers who would otherwise pass on productivity software.

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

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Posted by Bonkers 07/03/08 07:51

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ho ho, onecare should always be pronounced with an inspector clouseau accent.

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Posted by Adriab 07/03/08 08:00

Rank: 4/5 after 1 vote

Selling software as a service is not a new idea, Microsoft just took a little longer to figure this out than others.

Also, there are plenty of free alternatives to MS office programs that are compatible with the same file types.

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Posted by gopher65 07/03/08 11:53

Rank: 4/5 after 1 vote

In my experience MSOffice is a little bit better than OpenOffice. But if I was a student with no money to spend I'd go for the free version (OO). It is almost as good and the price is better;).

I'm surprised MS hasn't put out ad-supported versions of MSOffice yet. I would if I were them.

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Posted by MGraser 07/03/08 22:52

Rank: 5/5 after 2 votes

They say that it would normally cost $200, but would instead be $70 a year. Well, we had Office 97, 2000, 2003, & 2007. So it takes 3 to 4 years to come out with each version. So, you'll be paying $210 to $280 for the same software. Sounds like a campaign by Microsoft to bilk the mathematically challenged!

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Posted by menkaur 07/03/08 23:33

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microsoft is doomed... it's booming success was due to piracy. and now - with strong protections on vista they are loosing it
if they do that to office, they'll loose office shit to....
i'm going for mac )