What are the Prices of the Different Office 2010 Editions?

What are the Prices of the Different Office 2010 Editions?
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Instead of eight editions as with Office 2007, Office 2010 will be available in only four retail editions. Each edition has a different combination of applications to appeal to several segments of the productivity software market.

Pricing of the Office 2010 editions is a bit complicated this time around because Microsoft has made it possible to buy Office 2010 when you buy a new computer. Learn all about the different pricing of Office 2010 and the new way to get the software giant’s suite of productivity software.

Boxed and Product Key Cards

You can purchase Office 2010 in two ways. First, you can buy the retail boxed version just as you have in the past. These boxed versions are available at all major software retailers both online and in stores.

However, this time you can buy Office 2010 if you buy a new PC that came pre-installed with a trial version of the suite. Rather than buying a boxed version, you can opt to purchase a Product Key Card instead to unlock the trial version on your new PC and turn it into a full-fledged license of the software.

There is only one catch to buying a Product Key Card. Boxed versions of the software are licensed for installation on up to two PCs but unlocking the software with a Key Card only licenses you for use of Office 2010 on one computer. The Home and Student edition is the exception which is licensed for use on up to three PCs.

Pricing of the Office 2010 Editions

Office 2010 Home and Student Edition

Office 2010 Professional is the top of the line edition for the retail market. Boxed versions of the professional edition is US$499 and Product Key Cards cost US$349. It seems that giving up the ability to install the software on one extra PC comes with a greatly reduced price tag.

The price of the Home and Business boxed version is US$279 while the Product Key Card is just US$199. Not as big a savings as the Professional edition, there is still a lot of money to be saved by opting for the Key Card over the boxed version.

The most popular edition, Home and Student, is priced at US$149 for the boxed retail version and US$99 for the Product Key Card. US$99 is a steal considering you get Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote; that’s just about all the software students need to see themselves through their academic careers.

If you qualify, the Academic edition of Office 2010 is the best deal of all. Containing the same applications as the Professional edition, qualifying students and educators can get the Academic edition for just US$99 for both the boxed retail and Product Key Card versions.

Conclusion

In the first article in this series, we looked at the different versions of Office 2010 and the applications that ship with each. Making life easier on the consumer, Microsoft has decided to ship only four retail editions of its popular suite of software rather than eight when it released Office 2007.

Pricing for Office 2010 depends on whether you buy the boxed retail version or have the opportunity to unlock the pre-installed version of Office 2010 on a recently purchased PC. Except for the Home and Student edition, all other editions are licensed for installation on just one PC if you buy the Product Key Card rather than the boxed edition. Consider this restriction carefully when you weigh the pricing options of the various Office 2010 editions.

This post is part of the series: Office 2010 Editions and Pricing

Unlike previous versions of Microsoft’s suite of productivity software, Office 2010 will only ship in four retail editions. Pricing of these editions has also changed from previous versions. Learn all about the different editions and pricing of Office 2010.

  1. Selecting an Edition of Office 2010
  2. Explore the Pricing of the Different Office 2010 Editions