Office 2007 is Microsoft’s big push to once again own the office application suite market. With features 10 years ahead of the competitors, there’s no sign that Microsoft are lowering prices to compete as they don’t feel they need to. So how much does Office 2007 cost?

Clearly taking the view that you get what you pay for, Microsoft’s Office 2007 suite is not cheap, as Microsoft believe that they have the very best office suite on the market.

It certainly depends on which version you’re talking about, but when competitors are offering relatively functional office suites that effectively do the same job, letting you create documents, calculate spreadsheets, prepare presentations and more, at sub $100 prices, or even free of charge, Office 2007 needs to be something special to compete.

This is where Microsoft believe they hold the upper hand. With a totally re-designed and even dramatically simplified interface, especially if you’re looking to use Office’s more advanced features, it’s clear that Microsoft have drawn a line in the sand, and have poured millions of dollars into making sure their product is very different from everyone else’s.

I have to profess liking Office 2007 a lot. The dynamic ribbon toolbar is a true improvement over the standard ‘file, edit, view’ toolbars of the past. It looks very modern, and even in the beta version, it performs quite powerfully. It certainly does make all of the competing office suites look very 80’s and 90’s in comparison. It’s an interface I’d love to see the competition copy.

But it’s a bit like the whole question of upgrading to Windows Vista. I’m very enamoured of the new operating system, and am using Vista and Office 2007 now. But realisitically, do Vista and Office let me do anything different to XP or Office 2003?

For everyday uses, the answer is no. Were I stuck in a world of Windows XP and Office 2003, with Firefox as my browser instead of IE 7, I’d be able to do everything I do today. But there are plenty of ‘little things’ in Office 2007 that I do like, things that office clones don’t have. Little usability things that the cloners are still figuring out how to copy. 

The thing is, human beings like new stuff, and I’m no different. As with every new iPod that comes out, people want the latest, whether they really need it or not. And nothing screams out ‘the latest’ like Vista and Office 2007, running on a dual core tablet PC, with wireless broadband connecting you to the world.

I would never go back to the old operating system, old office software, old browsers, or even an old iPod. Not unless I was absolutely forced to do so, and I don’t see any such forcing coming my way anytime soon.

No doubt Microsoft is counting on this to some degree in its quest to sell more copies of Vista and Office 2007. If you want quality (and yes, some will laugh at that with the word Microsoft in the same sentence), you want Microsoft’s software, not some poxy Office clone.

So let’s just put it this way… if Office 2007 was never released, and Open Office was it, well, I’d adjust pretty quickly and that would be that. But that’s not going to happen – I’ll be a very happy Office 2007 user. It’s simply very clear that not everyone is going to have the same viewpoint as me.

For many, a free or very inexpensive office suite will do the job. Especially if finances are tight. A shiny new Office can wait. But for plenty of people, Office 2007 will be their new reality.
So, what are the new prices for Office 2007?

An online report tells us what we can expect to pay.

It looks like prices will be the same as Office 2003 pricing, except that this time there is also a new ‘Ultimate’ version, just as there is Windows Vista Ultimate.

The cheapest version is the new ‘Home and Student’ edition. This is the replacement for the Office 2003 ‘Student and Teacher’ edition which can be installed on up to three computers in the same home without falling foul of licensing restrictions.

This version will retail for AUD $249, and will be limited to home and student uses only – you won’t be able to legally use this version in an office to do office type work.

This version comes with Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote. While I’m very, very happy to see that OneNote is now a standard part this version, it’s a bit of a shock to discover that this version does not contain Outlook, Microsoft’s industrial strength email client. Clearly, Microsoft thinks that ‘Windows Mail’, which is Outlook Express in slightly fresher clothing, is good enough.

I suppose it is, for home users, but really it’s a shockingly bad and underpowered email program that should have been dramatically upgraded, or completely re-written. I guess Microsoft needs to give users an ‘incentive’ to fork out the extra cash for a version of Office that does have Outlook 2007.

And this is where the next version of Office comes into play. It’s the Office 2007 ‘Standard Edition’. The big differences here are that you can only install it on one machine, but you will get Outlook 2007, and this version can be used in business environments. Stunningly, Microsoft has removed OneNote from this version, and have bumped up the price to AUD $690. That’s the price of a cheap desktop computer for Christmas!

But what really irks me is the removal of OneNote. Microsoft, don’t you want people to use and love OneNote? Most people I know have never heard of it until I show it to them. They love it once they see it, and so many more people would use it. I guess they’ll just have to pay for it separately.

The next version after this is Office 2007 Professional. This is the same as the Standard edition, but also comes with Access, the database software, Publisher, for doing basic graphic design, and Outlook with the Business Contact Manager add-on, which is basically a customer relationship management type program in basic form for small businesses. This one costs AUD $849, with the price set at AUD $549 for the upgrade edition.

A dedicated Small Business edition of Office 2007 is set to retail for AUD $749, and will be available for AUD $499 as an upgrade version.

The top-of-the line version is called Office 2007 Ultimate, and this one has ‘the lot’, including some enterprise level applications that home users won’t care about. This version will also come with OneNote 2007. This version is set to retail at AUD $1150, and at AUD $939 for the upgrade version.

Microsoft is also offering an ‘Office Live’ service in the US that will give you the ability to create a website for your business and do some basic collaboration with other Office users. It’s not yet available in Australia, and no doubt has much further development in store to really make it a must-have.

There has been talk on the Internet of Microsoft taking the woeful ‘Microsoft Works’ program, and turning it into a free (or very, very inexpensive) online suite to compete with Google’s Spreadsheets and Docs, or Open Office. Whether Microsoft will do this or not is up in the air. If they do, many ‘home and student’ users might choose to use that instead of buying the ‘Home and Student’ version of Office 2007.

We also have an update from Microsoft’s PR people in Australia regarding the ‘Office Genuine Advantage’ (OGA) program. I asked them for clarification on the way it will notify you that your copy of Office is non-genuine. What I wanted to know is if a pirate version of Office will notify you that it is non-genuine the way that Windows XP notifies you, by popping up a yellow notification box every now and then, and placing a ‘Microsoft star’ in your system tray.

Microsoft say that OGA will not notify users in the same way that WGA does. At this stage, anyway. That’s got to be a good thing, because nothing will encourage users to switch over to a free office alternative more than a box popping up every now and then and telling you that your copy of Office is non-genuine.

Of course, Microsoft wants you to buy a legal version. They’ve dramatically improved their Office suite to give you an incentive. It’s a shame they haven’t lowered the prices, but that’s their prerogative.

Only a huge sway towards other office suites will force Microsoft to lower prices, just as a surge in Firefox users forced Microsoft to finally update the woefully outdated Internet Explorer 6, finally available as Internet Explorer 7.

With Office and Windows being Microsoft’s two main cash cows, it seems clear that nothing will change anytime soon, despite free office alternatives and Linux or Mac operating systems – Microsoft’s new software will sell.

I’m going to be a Vista and Office 2007 user, as will many other people, whether now, or in the not-too-distant future. The question is, will you?

Related: