Almost 16 Million Office 2010 Copies Sold in 6 Months

sygnus21 said:

Not sure where you get your stats from but trust me, a lot of people are actually purchasing it in legitimate ways.

My stats aren't STATS, but rather come from gut instinct, reading the web, and working professionally in the IT field for almost 15 years now. Seems all of my friends and most people that I speak to on forums got their copy from a friend or from some other download from the Internet for no cost. In fact, many simply believe that "their computer came with Office for free". While I do understand that some computers do come with office, and some people checked the box and paid extra for office when they bought their computer....it's also true that in some instances their "computer friend" brought over a copy when they got their computer and set them up with it as they didn't want them to be stuck without it. Perhaps they don't even realize it...as many times it's not even worth explaining to the masses why we do what we do on the computer.

sygnus21 said:

Also, students can get a discount on the professional plus at a substantial discount. My daughter did

Yes, I do understand these programs exist and people do purchase legitimately through these. In addition, there are people who can obtain non-legitimate student email addresses and buy and sell student copies to people who are otherwise not qualified for the offer. I know people who do it. They post things like, "hey, before you spend $120 on Office, talk to me first, I can probably get you a copy at the $29 student rate.

sygnus21 said:

And let’s not forget the Microsoft Home Use Program that’s offered to the military and government workers. So yeah, I think there are more legitimate "home" users then you might think

The Home Use Program is also offered to companies and such which maintain a current Enterprise Agreement with Microsoft including Software Assurance for the desktop itself.

I used to be the administrator of my current companies Home Use Program until we decided to not renew our Enterprise Agreement because we could no longer justify the cost of software assurance for our business. And I believe that since we no longer qualify for the Home Use Program that our end-users who did purchase the copy of the software are actually no longer entitled to use that software under the program. The same holds true for people who are no longer with the employer who provided the copy of the software that they were using. (Although, I doubt highly that Microsoft would actively go out and try to stop this use of the software).

sygnus21 said:

Is there piracy, of course? But take this in consideration..... a lot of everyday "home" users whom we so eagerly dismiss as uneducated don't know "how" to pirate and will thus pay the exorbitant prices we decry as foul rather than jump through the hoops just to get a pirated copy.

While I am sure some people buy the software, I think a lot of these "uneducated users"..also don't need or use MS office. Many might be using the copy of MS Works or the Corel Word Pefect suite that their computer came with.

sygnus21 said:

Example - I tell people all the time about the "free" Anti-Virus software Microsoft offers, yet they look at me like I'm speaking rocket science when telling the where to download it from and hold on to that paid program like they're holding on for a breath of air

Yes, many of the uneducated people have learned, over time and after problems, that they NEED an AV. And they grasp on very hard to this purchase as it's likely one of the only software purchases they have made (aside from games). They fear the crash of the computer, or the loss of their identity makes this purchase absolutely required. Kinda like doing taxes.

jimbo45 said:

There are so many LEGAL ways to get heavily discounted copies of MS Office that I'm not surprised at how good its selling at.

For as little as 5 USD you can get a (LEGAL) discounted version -- such as Use at Home etc so there isn't a huge reason to ignore MS office against FREE office suites.

Jimbo: Can you share one of these with me? Friend of mine at work needs office on her home computer for her son to write school papers (think he is in junior high school). Our company no longer can offer the Home Use Program. She isn't a student with a valid .edu address that can be used for the student and academic copies. I've shown her the link for MS Office at NewEgg, for the 3 user copy of MS Office for $114.99...but if I can legally obtain this in another manner for her, I would like to offer the suggestion to her.

Layback Bear said:

I must have not of stated my point correctly. Point being; Microsoft Office must be better than the free ones or people wouldn't be buying them in such large numbers. That many copies sold tells me, (non user) if I ever need a Office program Microsoft Office would be at the top of my shopping list. I do not tell people what to buy or not to buy.

Like others have said, these numbers include all enterprise licenses for Office. If a company has an enterprise agreement with software assurance for 10,000 desktops....the minute that Office 2010 becomes available to them via Microsoft, Microsoft counts this as 10,000 licenses for MS Office. My company had a 300 seat enterprise agreement with MS and we are on Office 2007. We have only rolled out Office 2010 on 10 computers. So, I would say we have 10 copies in Use, Microsoft would say we have purchased 300 copies.

Either way, Office is the de facto office application. It really is what most people use. I think if MS office were Free....hardly anybody would use Open Office....except for the diehard anti-MS zealots who gravitate towards anything not made by MS.

sygnus21 said:

pparks1 said:

While I am sure some people buy the software, I think a lot of these "uneducated users"..also don't need or use MS office.

What do you say they need?

Who knows what they need, if anything. Lots of people just use a computer for Facebook, email, etc. They may need nothing as far as an office application goes.

sygnus21 said:

And wheter you agree or not, there ARE far more legitimate users than you think, for whatever reason(s). Sorry.

I sincerely hope that is the case, I have always worked for commercial software companies so piracy is something that I certainly don't endorse. My suspicions about Office are the same as my suspicions about Adobe products like Photoshop. I think there are quite a number of people who use the software that didn't pay for the software. I certainly know personally a few people who paid the $600...but know of quite a few more who didn't. I just don't think that anti-piracy measures would be as prolific as they are these days if the vendors felt the overwhelming majority of people were paying for the software. Heck, even MS reduced the # of keys that a technet subscriber gets in the middle of a contract due to rampant piracy and selling of product keys and such. If a majority of customers were buying all of this stuff through legal, normal retail channels, I don't think changes like this would have been enacted.

sygnus21 said:

Anyway we'll agree to disagree and move on :)

I can agree to that. Our experiences are different, so our opinions are different. Nothing wrong with that.

sygnus21 said:

MY favorite Office apps....Word, Excel, Outlook

I just think it's too bad that Outlook isn't included in the Home and Student edition of Office. I think tons of home users could benefit from Outlook...it is a solid piece of software. But if I recall correctly, Office 2010 Home and Business (which is the cheapest offering with Outlook) is $279 for the retail boxed copy...not the product key card version that is 1 install to 1 machine only (like OEM...I think this version is $199).