Microsoft And Nokia Hooking Up - Office On Smartphones

Microsoft and Nokia are rumored to be announcing a deal today that will bring Microsoft Office to Nokia handsets. The move is a preemptive strike at the emerging competitive threat from free Web-based word processing, spreadsheet and other office related software, from Google primarily. Both companies are feeling the heat in their perspective market places, Nokia is losing smartphone market share to Apple's iPhone line, Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices and Google Android powered devices. Microsoft on the other hand is fighting to keep it's cash cow Office line relevant.

Source: New York Times

Microsoft offers Office Ultimate 2007 on a students budget

Calling it "The Ultimate Steal", Microsoft has announced student pricing for the Office Ultimate 2007 edition. According to a Microsoft release, "Students who are actively enrolled at eligible educational institutions will be able to acquire Office Ultimate 2007 via the Web at the low student price of US$59.95." The offer is extended to students in the US, Canada, and the UK, now and will be offered to those in Spain, Italy and France as of September 20th. A one-year subscription license will also be offered for £12.95/€ 18.00/C$22.00 outside of the US.

Microsoft testing the waters with free version of Works

The BBC is reporting that Microsoft, feeling the heat from rivals like Sun and Google, is going to offer an ad-supported free version of Works with the release of version 9 later this year. Works is the version that generally ships with PCs or is available for $39.99 US, and is comprised mostly of Word and Excel. Not bad for the consumer...