Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:

Well, it’s really to download it, not to use it. But the Office 2007 Beta has proved so popular that it has been downloaded three million times, and Microsoft says it needs to recoup its costs.

Consumers who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged $1.50 per download, beginning next Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT, a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

“Since the end of May, Beta 2 has been downloaded more than three million times… That’s 500 percent more than what was expected,” the spokeswoman said. “The fee helps offset the cost of downloading from the servers.” [Source: News.com]

We Say: Offset the cost of downloading? Hmmm… since Microsoft is really hot to spend whatever it takes to make Zune succeed, I’m just not sure about it really needing money to defray the cost of downloading. Sounds more like a way to add to the bottom line instead.

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[tags]microsoft,office 2007,zune,beta 2,cost download[/tags]