Why Is Microsoft Office So Expensive?

[Le Big Mac]

and compatiblity is generally pretty good with the windows version

"pretty good" understates it. I have never had any problems transferring docs from Word or Excel between a PC and a Mac. The only problem that ever has arisen is if I forget the .doc extension (which is easily solved, and automatically apended if you want in Office 2004:Mac)

 

[Euan]

Yep, compatibility is excellent.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

What about AppleWorks? I use it all the time, even though I have Office 2004:Mac, iWork, etc. I just use AppleWorks to get it done quick, it's nice and simple. Doesn't have the compatibility across PCs but, it still works great. PLUS it's free with your Mac.

Word:Mac is definitley sold seperatley, too, as I have a copy of it.

 

[cnormag]

I dont know if you are in school, but at my University they have a deal with Microsoft, and I got the whole package for $5. Great deal, something to check into if you are in school.

 

[IJ Reilly]

No one has answered the main question: Why is it so expensive?

The answer.

Office is the cash cow for Microsoft. Since Microsoft is selling $50 copies of Windows OEM it has to look for other income sources. Office accounts for $11bn in sales for Microsoft out of a gross of $40bn.

So Office is a very important part of M$ and that's why they're defending it with knives and swords against the hordes of Open Source software like Open Office.

The actual answer: Because they can. This is what happens when a proprietary product is treated by the marketplace as a "standard." As Adam Smith said:

"The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the highest which can be got. The natural price, or the price of free competition, on the contrary, is the lowest which can be taken... The one is upon every occasion the highest which can be squeezed out of the buyers... The other is the lowest which the sellers can commonly afford to take, and at the same time continue their business."

Microsoft is enjoying effectively monopoly pricing for Office.

 

[katie ta achoo]

You realise you can turn Clippy off, right? Agreed, he's horrible though.

Oh, and am I the only one who loves katie ta achoo's 'tar?

Is there a Clippy in OS X Office? I've never seen him, but.. he could still be lurking on my HD somewhere.

and mad jew I think I love you.
Or at least wiggly greenspan loves you.

 

[mad jew]

Is there a Clippy in OS X Office? I've never seen him, but.. he could still be lurking on my HD somewhere.

Yeah. He even gets his own button (the one that looks like a quote of a question mark).

and mad jew I think I love you.
Or at least wiggly greenspan loves you.

Yay! I'm loved.

Keep up the crazy 'tars. Of course, nothing comes even close to being as whacky as my 'tar.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Keep up the crazy 'tars. Of course, nothing comes even close to being as whacky as my 'tar.

You mean irritating, don't you?

 

[cdubb213]

Yeah I think I might just buy microsoft office 2001, they have them on ebay for reasonable prices. As long as it is compatible with windows, i'm ok with it.

I want to thank everyone for their opinions, even though some of you guys were kinda off topic.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Yeah I think I might just buy microsoft office 2001, they have them on ebay for reasonable prices. As long as it is compatible with windows, i'm ok with it.

I want to thank everyone for their opinions, even though some of you guys were kinda off topic.

ummm, DON'T buy Office 2001 if you're using OS X.....it was the last of the OS 9 line and is NOT an OS X product......that would be a major mistake

 

[cdubb213]

ummm, DON'T buy Office 2001 if you're using OS X.....it was the last of the OS 9 line and is NOT an OS X product......that would be a major mistake

I didn't even know that.

You see, you learn something new everyday. So I need to get the microsoft Office 2004?

Thank You Macky-Mac!

 

[mad jew]

So I need to get the microsoft Office 2004?

You would get by very well with Office X which is extremely similar to 2004. Look for second hand copies on eBay or something.

 

[FFTT]

You only NEED Microsoft Office IF your job or classes require you to save all documents in Word format or that you simply can not function without
Excel or PowerPoint or Entourage.

AppleWorks is perfectly fine for drafting documents and minor desktop
publishing. It also has a database, drawing and paint format.

You can also save your documents in Word format if so desired.

You can open and read nearly any text format with Text Edit.

iWork still needs a database, but you're good to go for desktop publishing
and Keynote blows away PowerPoint.

What Apple needs to add to the iWork Suite is something compatible
with "Microsoft Project" and "Microsoft Access", along with an Excel compatible database. This would make the iWork Suite a complete Microsoft Office killer.

Microsoft Office is deeply imbedded in the workplace, but this is no excuse to stick with Microsoft Windows OS.

Office is priced the way it is for the same reason printer ink is priced so high.

They get you in with cheap loss leader hardware, then jam it to you for
everything else you need.

At least students can benefit from bulk purchase pricing of MicroSoft Office through their school purchasing department.

 

[godbout]

Just get a ripped off copy of Office 2004 from the internet and screw M$ Hahahaha Just kidding! (pls don't do anything illegal ) I actually bought my copy from my dads work because at somepoint they were selling it for like 25$ CDN (this may be exagerated, it might have been 40$). I got it for Excel which is actually a really good program and is pretty much needed for some data crunching that I do (actually M$ Mac Devision generally does a decent job (save MSN messenger)). For alot of things like people said TextEdit does the job but I also have LaTex (TexShop) which is AWSOME if you are writing reports (especially scientific stuff). It takes a little while to learn but once you do it will do pretty much ANYTHING that you need. At this point in time I don't think that NeoOffice or OpenOffice do the job but look out for OpenOffice2 Which should be killer! (and of course best of all you will be supporting the open source movement).

I think that the best solution for you at the time is to suck it up and try to get the best deal on Word that you can find but try not to pay more than $50 USD for it becuase it is probably not worth it. As others have mentioned look at Campus computer stores. Good luck!

 

[tuartboy]

Don't forget with office you get wonderful assistants popping up to 'help' you and state the obvious to you

Clippy: It looks like your typing a letter
You: no $h%T sherlock go away.... <click on clippy and check 'hide assistant>

but yeah it IS the standard and does actually work on a mac.
I too second getting a usb drive (or using the email trick, I do it all the time) instead of floppies

hate when this happens.

 

[FFTT]

That's hilarious!