Microsoft divulges exorbitant pricing for Office 2008 for Mac

Microsoft has finally released pricing information for their updated office suite for Mac, and the numbers aren’t pretty: if you were hoping to jump on this forthcoming version, save your pennies, because the cheapest version is weighing in at a hefty $150 for a downsized student edition.

Three editions will be hitting the market, and each has slight variations, as follows:

Microsoft Office 2008 is the standard edition, including Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Entourage. One interesting note is that this specific edition’s version of Entourage includes Exchange support, which will not be included in the student version. This will also include workflows. This edition will cost $399.95 for the complete version or $239.95 for the upgrade version.

Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition is a downsized version of the standard edition, including the productivity tools without some of the functionality; Entourage will not support Exchange, and there are no workflows included. If you need it for the basic tools, you can save a little money: the full version will cost $149, and there is no option to upgrade from a previous edition.

Microsoft Office for Mac Special Edition will include all the productivity of the standard suite but will add Microsoft Expression Media for Mac. Take a deep breath: pricing for the full version is a whopping $499.99 for the full version, or $299.95 for the upgrade version.

If you really must have the evil Microsoft products on your machine, then spend the money as necessary. However, it is worth noting that iWork ‘08 is now compatible with Office, so you can convert your documents into Windows-friendly formats; iWork ‘08 only costs $79.99 and I must say it is far superior to any Microsoft product available.

Just food for thought.

• Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac debuts at MacWorld Jan. 15
• Microsoft releases SP2 for Mac Office 2008
• Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac gets update
• Office 2008 for Mac delayed until January 2008
• A year and some later, Microsoft releases Office ‘08 trial