It has been confirmed by a Microsoft spokesperson that Microsoft has officially eliminated the pricing for upgrades to their Office 2010 product line. Since as long as I can remember, and I am sure as long as some of you can remember, most major software companies have always had a two tier pricing system. One for a new install and one price for an upgrade. So what does this mean for you and I and future pricing of Microsoft products plus from others if they follow Microsoft’s lead?

An article from Ed Bott states:

As you can see from the table of estimated retail prices below, the net effect for customers is list prices that are lower by about 20% for the two most popular Office SKUs and a slight increase for the high end. Home and Student 2010 offers a $119 price point for electronic copies, compared to the single list price of $149 for the full Office 2007 version. I’ve compared Office Home and Business 2010 to Office Standard 2007, which includes the same mix of products. Office Home and Student has been heavily discounted through the years, so it’s not certain that the lower retail price will have an impact on actual selling prices.

Surprise! I bet you thought that we were going to see a price increase. But instead two of the products are actually going to be cheaper in price if one chooses to download instead of buying the boxed version.

What do you think? What is going to happen with the next version of Windows? Will we also see no upgrade pricing? Will other software companies follow the lead of Microsoft?

Comments welcome.

Source.