News

'Ultimate' Edition Coming for Office 2007

• By Stuart J. Johnston
• May 30, 2006

The revelation came in a single slide accompanying Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' keynote at the company's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) last week.

Steven Bink, proprietor of Bink.nu and a Microsoft watcher in Amsterdam, noted the addition on his Microsoft news site, and a brief media feeding frenzy fleshed out the story. (That slide has apparently since been excised from the slide presentation.)

India-based tech news and buyers' guide site TechTree reported that the new retail and OEM SKU will contain almost all the applications available in the various versions of Office 2007, including the Groove collaboration client. It is set to cost $679.

Microsoft confirmed it is indeed planning an Ultimate edition of Office 2007 as well as the reported price.

"Based on customer feedback received, we understand that some people working at home need to have access to the full line-up of 2007 Microsoft Office applications so they can create, find, manage and share information across boundaries using the toolset they're familiar with at the office," says a prepared statement provided by the company.

Microsoft introduced the Ultimate Edition branding when it announced the packaging for Windows Vista. However, when it originally announced its Office 2007 packaging, it did not mention an Ultimate version.