Microsoft announces Office 2003 pricing and release date

By Alun Williams

Posted on 20 Aug 2003 at 10:48

Microsoft has officially announced a release date and pricing information for Office 2003, its now mammoth suite of productivity programs, tools and servers.

UK pricing, however, has yet to be confirmed. This means Amazon's leak of Office pricing - reported last week - remains the best guess of translating dollar pricing.

Microsoft has confirmed US pricing. The Professional Edition 2003 will cost $499 (upgrades $329), the Standard Edition 2003 will cost $399 (upgrades $239), the Small Business Edition 2003 will cost $449 (upgrades $279) and the Student and Teacher Edition $149 (upgrades not available).

This compares with the Amazon UK listings of Office Standard Edition 2003 at £349.99, the Small Business Edition 2003 at £384.99, and the Professional Edition 2003 at £429.99.

The official release date is 21 October, not 24 October as the Amazon leak suggested.

The long list of Office's contents includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Visio, FrontPage, Publisher, Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and three new programs - InfoPath 2003, Office Live Communications Server 2003 and OneNote 2003.

The final code has now been released to manufacturing. It follows what Microsoft claims to be the largest beta tests in its history, involving 600,000 beta testers. This - promises Microsoft - has helped to create one of its most stable products.

'The release to manufacturers of the Microsoft Office System is a milestone, not only in terms of the unprecedented development and testing work that went into it, but also because it enables customers to piece together data and operational aspects of their business where the real work happens: at individuals' desktops,' said Steven Sinofsky, senior VP of the Information Worker Group at Microsoft.