14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has set an estimated retail price of $679 and an upgrade cost of $539 for Office Ultimate 2007. Those are the official price tags delivered by Microsoft on its Office Online website, and at these rates, Office Ultimate outweighs by far Windows Vista Ultimate in terms of costs. In this context, excessive pricing policies have been associated with high levels of piracy. And Office makes no exception to this rule.
But what if Office Ultimate was dirt cheap? And when I say dirt cheap I mean it. Let's say that users would be able to buy Office Ultimate 2007 for just $75 instead of $679 or $539. And let's also say that users could go even lower and just rent Office Ultimate 2007 for $25 per year and that after three years, you would own a perpetual license. Office Ultimate 2007 includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, Access 2007, Publisher 2007, OneNote 2007, Groove 2007, and InfoPath 2007.
Well, Microsoft is currently conducting an experiment down under the slogan "It's Bot Cheating." The initiative is available exclusively to Australian students and they can either buy Office Ultimate 2007 for $75 or simply rent it for $25 a year.
The gap between the actual retail price and the one offered via the "It's Not Cheating" initiative is even wider in Australia due to the fact that the estimated retail value of Office Ultimate 2007 on the continent is $1,175.
Do you think that anyone would still pirate Office Ultimate 2007 when the suite will be cheap enough to buy?