OEMs charged less for Office 2010 if they preload more
If an OEM wants to bundle Office Starter 2010 with a Windows computer they are selling, Microsoft plans to charge $5 per copy. If, however, the PC maker wants to save some dough, there's a way to pay just $2 per copy, but there's a catch. It also needs to bundle something called "PC Essentials," which includes Windows Live Essentials (Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety, and Sync) and the Bing Bar (which will be included in Essentials as of Wave 4). It will also need to set Bing as the default search engine and MSN as the homepage in the PC's browser.
Source: OEMs charged less for Office 2010 if they preload more
The fiends!
~Lordbob