Microsoft pulls Office 2003

By Barry Collins

Posted on 20 Jun 2007 at 10:22

Microsoft will stop selling Office 2003 at the end of this month.

The company says it may take some time for retailers to exhaust the existing stock of Office 2003, but that it won't be supplying them with any fresh copies from June 30.

The move is clearly designed to ensure system builders are bundling Office 2007 with new PCs, and comes six months after the product was first launched to consumers.

Although Microsoft is obviously keen to push Office 2007, it will continue to support Office 2003. It will also keep making the older version available to businesses.

"Also, remember that for your clients wishing to run Office 2003 still today, by taking advantage of the downgrade rights included in the Volume Licensing versions of Microsoft Office 2007, they can utilise Office 2003 today and then move to Office 2007 when they are ready, without having to re-buy their Office license like they would with OEM," says Eric Ligman, Microsoft senior manager for the small business community, on his blog.

The downgrade option isn't available to OEM or retail customers.