Microsoft plans to ship Office for Mac 2011 in late October with prices that undercut the current version of the office application suite by up to 50 percent. The suite will be available in a Home and Student edition, and a Home and Business edition.
The release of Office 2011 for the Mac will also kill off Entourage in favor of a completely new version of Outlook for managing contacts, calendars and email messages.
Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Messenger to handle user’s word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and instant messaging needs. It doesn’t, however, include Outlook.
Office for Mac Home and Business Edition 2011 will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Messenger and Outlook.
The Home and Student Edition is priced at US$119 for installation on a single Mac, or $149 for installation on three Macs. The Home and Office Edition costs $199 for installation on a single Mac, or $279 for installation on two Macs.
In comparison, Office 2008 Home and Student Edition costs $149, and Office 2008 Business Edition costs $399.
Academic pricing for the Home and Business edition comes in at $99 for installation on a single computer.
Microsoft also announced that customers purchasing Office 2008 as of August 2 will receive free upgrades to Office 2011 when it ships in October.