Microsoft isn’t really cutting the prices of Office for Mac – it just looks that way.
We’ve been intrigued to see press reports of Microsoft ‘cutting’ the prices on Office 2011 for Mac. It looks that way at first glance but, as usual, a closer look shows that Office 2011 prices aren’t really being cut.
As with Office 2010 for Windows, there’s a shuffle of bundles and dropping the upgrade option that results in an overall reduction in ‘value for money’.
You pay the same money for Office 2011 Home and Student bundle but get less.
Office 2011 for Mac Home and Student edition (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) will sell for $119 for a single license or $149 for a ‘family pack’ of three licenses. The ‘family pack’ is the same price as Office 2008 for Mac (and the equivalent Office 2010 pack).
The trap is that Office 2011 for Mac Home and Student edition does NOT have an email/PIM program. Office 2008 Home and Student had ‘Entourage’ while Office 2011 has ‘Outlook for Mac’ which is only available in the ‘Home and Business’ edition.
If you want to keep the same features as you had in Office 2008 Home and Student you have to pay more and switch to Office 2011 Home and Business edition costing more than $100 extra.
Office 2011 Home and Business edition (adds Outlook 2011 for Mac, the successor to Entourage) will sell for $199 for one license or $279 for two computers.
Compare that with the current Office 2008 for Mac official price of $400, which is why some reports talk about Microsoft generous price reduction.
That’s not the whole story. Most Mac users already have Office and would qualify for upgrade pricing, if it existed. There’s no upgrade discount for Office 2011 so for many people there’s a price INcrease from the Office 2008 upgrade price of $240 to $280 for Office 2011 Home and Business.
Of course street prices will be a bit lower than the official prices, though Office for Mac prices generally aren’t as competitive as those for the Windows version of Office.
Upgrade opportunity
There is a small opportunity to save money on Office 2011 for Mac Home and Business edition. See our separate article.
