Office Retail Prices Cut

Retail prices of Office XP have been reduced by about 15%, and prices of individual Office components, such as Word and Excel, have been reduced by more than 30%. The move suggests that Microsoft sees more opportunity in the consumer market for Office, which has traditionally been a business product, if it brings the price closer to those of lower-cost application suites from itself and competitors. However, volume prices have not been reduced, and the new retail pricing reduces the appeal of volume purchases for small customers.

New Pricing

The estimated retail price (ERP; Microsoft does not set final retail prices) for Office XP Professional will drop from US$579 to US$499 and for Office XP Standard from US$479 to US$399. The ERP of individual applications in the Office Standard Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access) will drop from US$339 to US$229. The prices were effective May 28, 2003.

Although prices for Office have not changed much recently (Office XP Professional and Standard were US$20 less than Office 2000, but also included fewer components), Microsoft has reduced its price over the years. The ERP of Office 1.0 for Windows, for example, released in 1990, was US$995.