Well, now that Microsoft Office 2010 has finally arrived on the store shelves we can start looking at ways in which we can purchase this much awaited product. The pricing structure or the new office has changed somewhat, compared with the older 2007 version. There are two basic offerings from Microsoft, the FPP which is the Fully Packaged Product (Normally at retail outlets) and the PKC, the Product Key Card which is basically the license without any CD or manuals or box.
The FPP product
Comes with a DVD to install the applications.
Home and Student offers licensing for 3 family members from the same household.
Home and Business and Professional is a license for 1 user but allowed to install the applications on 2 machines.
Licences are transferable onto other computers but it has to stay with the owner. (if the machine fails, they can install it on their new machine).
The PKC product
It seems that this license has to be used with the Office Starter pre-loaded on a new notebook or PC when it is purchased. There is no DVD, CD or USB memory stick to install the applications. However it can be sold separately without a new PC or notebook. So as a curved ball here I would imagine that if you can find the installation software from either another DVD or by downloading the software you can purchase this PKC license. This product cannot be transferred from one PC to the next, it lives and dies with the PC it is installed on.
Home and Student in this license is a single license – no family pack and does not come with software.
Pricing and Products in the suite
Home and Student 2010 – MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint and MS OneNote – NO MS Outlook!
PKC – R699
FPP – R829
Home and Business 2010 – Same as Home and Student but includes MS Outlook
PKC – R1699
FPP – R1799
Office Professional 2010 – MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, MS OneNote, MS Outlook, MS Access, MS Publisher
PKC – R3299
FPP – R4699
MS Outlook 2010 – A fully packaged product seems to retail at about R999
All the above pricing includes VAT and is an estimate from the prices published by various online software outlets. If you walk into a big computer retail store expect to pay an extra 10 to 20% for these products.
Upgrade pricing from previous versions
Microsoft have discontinued the upgrade pricing, the products are only available as full purchases being either PKC or FPP.
