Microsoft announced it is launching an annual subscription package called "Equipt" bundling Office Home and Student 2007 suite with Windows Live Services, Office Live Workspace, and Windows Live OneCare, for US $69.99 annually. It can be installed on up to three PCs.
The included software suite averages about $125 retail price if purchased as shrinkwrapped software, the included OneCare is priced at $49.99/yr as a standalone service.
This package bundles some of Microsoft's less successful online services with a stripped down Office suite. The combination of the world's most common productivity software with online storage, messaging, and malware protection raises the bar for competing services such as Google docs. Bundling one of its strongest cash contributors with free services indicates Microsoft will continue to wrap existing free online assets as value-added components to SaaS offers targeting both mobile and desktop. This is Microsoft's most substantial step toward "software plus services" and the first signal Microsoft will sacrifice cannibalizing existing revenue streams.
Note also the selection of storage and security as the first services to bundle.
The service will be sold initially through Circuit City and will expand to other distributors and suppliers.
Product/service components:
Office Home and Student comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote but not Outlook.
Windows Live Services include Messenger, Photo Gallery, Live Writer, and Live Toolbar and will also provide the mail component of this suite (Windows Live Mail, not Hotmail).
Windows Live OneCare is an annual subscription service which installs a PC client to scan for viruses and automatically seek the latest security updates to Microsoft software. It is pitched as "pro-active, anti-malware subscription service".
Office Live Workspace enables remote storage and sharing of Office documents.
This isn't going to get any coverage (who's the genius launching this mid-week two days before a huge summer holiday in the US?) but it's a huge move.