Call it rightpricing. Month after month, the best-selling retail version of Microsoft Office is the discounted edition for teachers and students. Only you don't have to be in school to buy it.
Since October 2001, Microsoft has been quietly selling its Office Student and Teacher Edition to all comers through mass-market merchants like CompUSA and Amazon.com. No wonder: At an average price of $137, the 2003 academic suite sells for less than half the cost of the standard version. To confirm your "eligibility," just click "I accept" on the pop-up user agreement with one hand while crossing the fingers of the other. Microsoft looks the other way. "We trust our customers," a company spokesperson says.
The reality: Monopoly or not, Microsoft can no longer force $240 upgrades on its customers. Blame the economy or competitors like Sun's StarOffice (free for students). But Office's biggest competitor is itself. I'm using Office 97 to write this. It's hard to find anything new worth $240 in the 2003 version. But for $137, I might just buy one - for the kids, of course.
- Paul Boutin
credit: Rinzen
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