Small Business Tech

Microsoft has began renting their application suite - Office. The cost is $70 per year for three computers in your home. You can currently rent a copy at Circuit City who is the current distribution partner for Microsoft. The name is a bit odd - Equipt.

From the Microsoft press release

...latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for their personal and school projects; Windows Live OneCare, the all-in-one security and PC management service; Windows Live tools, such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery so they can connect and share with people they care about most; and Office Live Workspace, a new service from Microsoft that makes it easy to save documents to a dedicated online Workspace and share them with friends and classmates. Anytime a new version of Office or Windows Live OneCare is released, Microsoft Equipt customers will get the version upgrades as part of their subscriptions.

If you like to have the latest version of Office around the house for yourself and the kids, this is a good deal. A copy of Office Home and Student 2007 currently costs $129 with Windows Live OneCare costing near $30 per year. Since Microsoft releases a new version of Office every couple of years, then you would be ahead with the rental plan.

Do not get excited if you are a business owner, though. The only version available is Office Home and Student. You could run into trouble with support as a business owner using this version. Also note that this version does not include Outlook - the popular application for reading email.

This is a good deal for those that love Microsoft Office. A person should consider alternatives such as Open Office or even Google Docs or Zoho, though. All of these alternatives are free, and some as capable as Microsoft Office.

Labels: Equipt, Microsoft, Office