Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Equipt, an all-in-one security and productivity software subscription service. Yeah, there is nothing to get excited for non-US users!
Microsoft Equipt offers Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote), Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live tools and Office Live Workspace. Microsoft Equipt is offered as one easy installation of its components.
Windows Live OneCare is the all-in-one security and PC management service. Windows Live OneCare provides an antivirus and antispyware with firewall protection, file and photo backup, performance tune-ups and home network management tools. Windows Live tools includes Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery. Office Live Workspace is a new service that makes it easy to save documents to a dedicated online Workspace and share them with friends and classmates.
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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.
Microsoft Equipt is USD 69.99 estimated retail price for a one-year renewable subscription. Each subscription will be good for three home PCs, making Microsoft Equipt ideal for families and individuals with one or several computers.
Microsoft Equipt will be sold in nearly 700 Circuit City stores in the U.S. starting mid-July 2008.
Microsoft Office basic non-subscription version starts at $149. For upgrades of non-subscription version, customers need to pay for upgrades. But with Equipt, they will have rights to perpetual upgrades. The cost would probably balances out as long as Microsoft releases new versions of Office every 2-3years.
For basic home users, having all the necessary software in a single bundle would help in installation, maintenance and upgrade. Non-US users and advanced users would prefer free software such Google Pack and Google Apps or other open source software such as OpenOffice.
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