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Microsoft Doubles Student Discounts for Office

by Tim Stevens on September 18, 2007 at 10:03 AM

Microsoft Fighting Piracy (and Competition) with Cheap SoftwareStudents are often guilty of using or downloading illegal copies of software. It's understandable given the fact that they typically need expensive software applications such as Word or Excel to complete assignments, but rarely have the income to pay for them. Thankfully, Microsoft is launching a new program designed to offer students its full Office Ultimate 2007 suite for cheap. Seriously cheap.

The program is called "The Ultimate Steal" and lets active college students purchase and directly download legal copies of Office 2007 for just $60, or about the same as a copy of 'Halo 3' when it launches next week. This is a $619 discount over the full retail version of Office Ultimate 2007, and about half what MS usually charges for Student editions of its Office suite. The catch is that you have to have an active e-mail address for a U.S. school (i.e. ending in ".edu") and must be enrolled with at least a 0.5 credit course load. Finally, there's a somewhat disconcerting requirement that you be able to provide some proof of enrollment if requested by Microsoft. If you can't, you'll be asked to pay the full $679 retail price for the suite.

On the surface, it seems the megalithic company is extending an olive branch to students who might not have legal licenses for everything installed on their PCs. Or, Microsoft is simply being charitable. But, is there an ulterior motive here? We think so. After all, yesterday Google announced that its free online office suite Google Docs now features a PowerPoint-like presentation program. Though we still find Google Docs to be a tad buggy at times, the price is right. Microsoft's $679 office software also faces competition from IBM's Lotus suite of document, spreadsheets and presentation programs, which IBM announced this morning it would be giving away for free.

So, is Microsoft helping alleviate the financial burden suffered by students, or is it bribing them into not jumping ship for some of the increasingly attractive alternatives that have sprung up of late? That depends on who you ask.

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Tags: Google, IBM, Microsoft, Office

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