Windows 7 Starter Microsoft chops prices of its ho

Microsoft is cutting costs of its Microsoft-hosted Exchange, also as its suite of enterprise companies (recognized because the Enterprise Productivity On the web Suite, or BPOS), and is refunding the distinction to current hosting clients.Microsoft is cutting its Exchange On the net pricing from $10 per user monthly to $5 per user monthly. Additionally, it is cutting the price with the BPOS bundle — which includes SharePoint Via the internet, Exchange Internet, Communications On-line and Live Meeting — from $15 per consumer per month, to $10 per consumer each month.Microsoft is leaving the pricing for its Deskless Worker versions of its hosted On line offerings the same. Exchange On the web Deskless Worker and SharePoint Via the internet Deskless Worker remain $2 per user monthly. The bundle with the two Deskless Worker offerings stays at $3 per person monthly.Not surprisingly, Microsoft officials didn;t attribute the cost cut to competition from Google Apps or other hosted offerings. Instead, they attributed the cuts to “rapid customer adoption, global scale and improved efficiencies from new software such as Exchange Server 2010″ (according to the press release).Microsoft is making BPOs available in 15 new countries before the end of the year. Later this week, BPOS will be commercially available in Singapore; trials are slated to begin in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary,Windows 7 Starter, Israel, Malaysia,Windows 7 X86, Mexico,Cheap Office 2010, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania and Taiwan. Commercial availability in India can also be expected later this year, officials said.Microsoft officials are now claiming to have more than 1 million paying users for Microsoft;s On the net family of services (not counting Live Meeting, for which there are many more paying clients, according to company officials). Newly signed BPOS clients include Hofstra University, Lions Gate Entertainment, McDonald’s Corporation, Rexel Group, Swedish Red Cross and Tyco Flow Control.Microsoft will be adding a paid, Microsoft-hosted version of Office Net Apps — the Webified versions of Word, Excel,Office 2010 Pro Plus Key, PowerPoint and OneNote– to its On the web stable next year. Company officials have said that paid offering will also be available to Microsoft volume-license customers so that they can host Office Web Apps themselves,Office 2010 Pro, on-premises, instead of or additionally to allowing Microsoft to host it for them. There will be additional (and, as yet, still unannounce) features that will be part of the paid Office Net Apps offering that aren;t part with the free, ad-funded version.Microsoft is currently rolling out refreshes to its Via the internet family of providers every 90 days or so, according to Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft On the web. Some with the new features the firm is rolling out to its on-premises software — such as Exchange 2010 — are debuting in the hosted, Over the internet offerings before they are available to buyers as server-based products. (The final Exchange 2010 software bits are slated to go to consumers starting next week.)I;m sure Microsoft consumers will be upbeat about the cost cuts for Microsoft;s hosted offerings. But I;d think Redmond;s partners who are trying to make money from selling Microsoft;s hosted solutions (if not their own hosted version of Microsoft;s wares) might be less enthusiastic…