Dell sells MS Office downloads

Dell is now selling Office 2007 as a legal download but is it cheaper?

Dell Computers is now selling Microsoft Office as a download – the first company other than Microsoft itself to do that.

Until now, Dell has been able to sell MS Office pre-installed on their computers or buying a product key to authorize the Office 2007 trial version supplied on a new computer.

Now you can go to http://www.dell.com/downloads/ buy Office 2007 and download the installation files plus the vital product key right away.

‘Pay Less for downloadable software’

That’s the boast from the Dell site – is it true?

Here’s a comparison of today’s prices on common Office 2007 bundles from Dell, Microsoft’s online store and the physical product from Amazon. See notes below for details.

As you can see, buying a physical install disk from Amazon is usually cheaper than either Microsoft or Dell’s download options. That’s despite the considerably lower costs for the online retailers.

Dell has the best price on the Home & Student bundle but this might be a short term anomaly. Over the time we’ve been tracking Office bundle prices, Amazon has consistently had the lowest prices with only rare exceptions.

No extra charges

One point in favor of Dell is they don’t seem to be adding extra fees to the online cart as Microsoft often does.

Dell open to everyone

The Dell store seems to be open to everyone, not just people who have bought a Dell computer.

However the store is limited to US residents only.

Notes on the price table:

• Dell’s announcement of the new download service included a $129.99 price for Office 2007 Home & Student bundle but our check of their site revealed the much lower price quoted above. That’s a significant change in less than a day so you might wonder how long that price will last.
  
• As usual, we’ve chosen Amazon as the retail / physical product comparison because it is a reputable retailer. Amazon’s free shipping offer means the advertised price is a fair comparison with download pricings.
  
• Microsoft’s prices are the advertised price NOT including the key and download ‘license lock box’ options that can be loaded onto the customer automatically during the purchase process. These ‘options’ can add between $12.99 to $34.99 to an already high price.
  
• Microsoft’s online store usually sells for the full retail price, with occasional exceptions for limited time offers. See Wanna pay more for Office? Use the new Microsoft store

See Also

• More Office purchase anomalies from Microsoft
• Wanna pay more for Office? Use the new Microsoft store