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• July 4, 2008 •
This week Microsoft announced that it will start offering an all-in-one security and productivity software subscription service for consumers. Called Microsoft Equipt, the service includes the anti-virus and anti-malware protection of Microsoft OneCare, and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote).
Also included are Windows Live tools, such as Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery 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.
Microsoft Equipt is $69.99 (U.S.) 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.
"With Microsoft Equipt we're improving our customers' computing experience by giving them essential software in a package that offers an easy install and setup experience, as well as a convenient and affordable way to stay updated with the latest versions of Office and Windows Live OneCare," said Bryson Gordon, group product manager, Microsoft Office.
Microsoft did not offer any information of availability of this subscription outside the USA.
OK, so let's take a closer look at this announcement. There has been talk about a subscription based pricing model for some time, so now it finally arrived. Let's look a bit closer to the offering at hand. Windows Live OneCare and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 are the only applications in the suite that are not currently available for free.
You can buy a 3-pc Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 for $109 from Newegg. You'll be able to find Microsoft's Live OneCare for around $30 (1 pc), but then again, for home users there are many free anti-virus / anti-malware products available that perform similar (or better) then Microsoft's OneCare.
So for simplicity (Equipt will install all these applications in one go, and also promises to update them all) the $70 a year Equipt suite seems a reasonable good deal, but if you'd spend a little time in getting these applications for free (and buy a copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007), you'll end up saving some money in the longer (2+ years) term.
You could (of course) also download the free Open Office suite, and while it doesn't offer all the bells & whistles that Microsoft Office will offer you, it does cover the basics pretty well without any cost!
So what do you think? Is Microsoft providing a good offer or would you rather just buy your software once - or go with free alternatives altogether?
