Oct 26, 2006
Customers who buy a PC in the Oct. 26, 2006 - March 15, 2007 time period with Office 2003 pre-installed on the machine will receive a coupon good for a free upgrade to a similar edition of Office 2007, Microsoft said Tuesday during a conference call with reporters and financial analysts. Users who purchase the full retail version of Office 2003 between Oct. 26, 2006 and Feb. 28, 2007 will also receive a coupon. "Buyers of Office 2003 Standard Edition will get Office 2007 Basic," said Scott Di Valerio, vice president of Microsofts OEM group. "2003 Small Business will get Small Business 2007, and 2003 Professional will get Professional 2007, all for zero dollars," Di Valerio said. Microsoft will charge shipping and handling to deliver Office 2007, however, as will OEMs participating in the exchange. An analyst downplayed the upgrade offer. "This doesnt seem like a big deal," said Paul DeGroot, analyst with Redmond, Wash.-based research firm Directions on Microsoft. "Microsoft doesnt want to stop Office sales, particularly to customers on a calendar year budget. If those customers have money in their budget, Microsoft doesnt want them to spend it on something else." The most likely users to take Microsoft up on the offer, said DeGroot, are those in small and medium-sized businesses running Office 2000. "If theyre sitting on Office 2000, this would be an opportunity to buy the license available today [Office 2003] and do an upgrade to Office 2007 next year.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20061026/tc_cmp/193402270
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