Office 2007 Key Retail customers Do your Office S

June 15 marks the date that Workplace 2010 goes on sale through retail. Although numerous enterprise watchers and possible end users are additional centered on the Webified version of Microsoft;s Office suite (Workplace Internet Apps), Microsoft and its partners are paying equally close, if not nearer, attention to Workplace Starter 2010.Workplace Starter 2010 — in spite of its name — is primarily meant to be a distribution tool,Office 2007 Key, rather than a low-end,Office 2010 Professional, free edition of Office. Yes,Microsoft Office Standard 2007, Workplace Starter 2010 is the replacement for Microsoft Works. It will be free and ad-supported and bundled on countless new PCs sold at retail. But Starter includes stripped-down versions of Word and Excel only and allows only basic document viewing and editing.Some have described Workplace Starter 2010 as trialware (or crapware, depending on your preference of terms). That;s not much off the mark. Workplace Starter is the new vehicle via which Microsoft is preloading an entry-level version of its latest Workplace suite on new PCs, with the hopes that consumers will be interested enough to pay to upgrade to a full-fledged version.Microsoft officials are not entirely convinced their Workplace Starter 2010 plan is going to work. I had a chance to see a note Microsoft sent to some of its OEM partners,Genuine Windows 7, outlining Office 2010 marketing restrictions and suggested best practices.Some interesting excerpts from that note:“Most customers who purchase a PC install a full Office suite on it within two weeks. Focusing around the full Office suites also helps avoid dissatisfaction from customers expecting a full Workplace suite or from enterprise consumers who miss the functionality of the full Workplace suites.“Incorrect messaging of Office Starter 2010 may discourage your customers from purchasing a full Workplace suite and could also lead to customer dissatisfaction and confusion. Market research shows that a large number of people confused Workplace Starter 2010 with a full Office suite, and were then dissatisfied because they believed they had received a full Office suite.”Microsoft is advising its PC and retail partners not to focus end-user advertising on Workplace Starter 2010. Why? From the aforementioned note: “(R)esearch shows that advertising or promoting Office Starter 2010 will distract your customers and deter them from purchasing a full Workplace suite.”Instead, Microsoft is advising its retail partners to focus about the idea that new PCs preloaded with Workplace 2010 are “ready for activation” with the purchase of a product key card or disc.As I blogged previously, Microsoft also is using Workplace Starter 2010 to get more of its own software and services preloaded on new PCs. Microsoft is planning to charge PC makers $2 per copy for Workplace Starter 2010 if they also agree to preload the Bing Bar and Windows Live Essentials. If a PC maker wants Workplace Starter 2010 only,Windows 7 Activation, Microsoft plans on charging $5 per copy.Here;s a screen shot below that reinforces this planned pricing, and notes that Microsoft is selling these bundles in packs of 10 to its OEM/system builder partners.
(click on the image above to enlarge)June 15 also is the date when Microsoft has said it plans to begin rolling out to consumers the new Windows Live Wave 4 Hotmail. It is the Wave 4 version of Hotmail that will enable consumers to share Office Internet Apps documents from inside their -mail. Microsoft “turned on” Office Internet Apps last week, enabling people to access the Webified versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote via their Windows Live Skydrive storage service.