News

Microsoft Cuts Office XP Prices

• By Scott Bekker
• May 29, 2003

In a move to make its Office XP products more attractive to retail customers and small businesses, Microsoft cut prices for several suites and individual personal productivity applications on Wednesday.

The price cuts ranged from 17 percent to 32 percent, with dollar savings ranging from around $80 to $110.

The largest dollar figure cut comes for customers interested in buying a single Office XP application. Microsoft cut its suggested retail price for the full packaged product of individual copies of Word 2002, Excel 2002, PowerPoint 2002 or Access 2002 to $229 from $339. That amounts to a 32 percent drop in the retail price.

The two Office XP suites that saw a drop in suggested retail prices were the Standard suite and the Professional suite. Office XP Standard, which includes Word 2002, Excel 2002, Outlook 2002 and PowerPoint 2002, went from $479 to $399. Office XP Professional, which includes all the titles in the Standard suite plus Access 2002, went from $599 to $499.

The drop in Office prices comes as Microsoft announced that employees of companies that enter Licensing 6.0 Software Assurance agreements with Microsoft have the right to use their Office software at home at no charge.

The Office XP line of products came out in 2001. Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on its Office 2003 product line, which is expected to ship in the next few months.