Here’s an article with an interesting statistic: Microsoft Office 2003 Student And Teacher Edition made up 80% of all sales of productivity suites in 2006. Microsoft lowered the price on a student edition of Office to $150 in 2001 and has kept the price there since then. Since the Student edition includes Powerpoint and can be installed on up to 3 computers, the price is irresistible compared to comparable full-price Office suites – tempting many small businesses to bend the rules and install it on office computers.
That will be a more difficult decision next month. The Home And Student Edition of Office 2007 does not include Outlook, presumably to discourage businesses from picking it up. It will still be cheaper for offices to buy the student edition and buy Outlook separately, but not quite as good a deal as it is today.
