Microsoft kills Office 2003
Microsoft has announced it will stop selling OEM versions of Office 2003 to OEMs and system builders at the end of this month.
Microsoft’s senior manager for small business community engagement, Eric Ligman said “After June 30, 2007, OEM Microsoft Office 2003 will no longer be available from Microsoft. Some authorized OEM Microsoft distributors may have some remaining inventory left for a short time after June 30th; however, Microsoft will no longer be shipping OEM Microsoft Office to them.”
While the move makes Office 2007 the default productivity suite for OEMs and system builders, Microsoft is still offering users who wish to run Office 2003 today the ability to downgrade to 2003 when purchasing Office 2007.
Ligman explained that “By taking advantage of the downgrade rights included in the Volume Licensing versions of Microsoft Office 2007, they can utilize Office 2003 today and then move to Office 2007 when they are ready without having to re-buy their Office license like they would with OEM.” OEM editions of Office, however, do not come with downgrade rights, he added.
Some analysts say that Microsoft seems to be now using OEM partners for driving sales in favor of Office 2007.
Earlier the company has set the kill date for Windows XP, for retail and OEM by January 2008, and a year later for system builders.
Microsoft however, disclosed it will continue to support Office 2003. Computerworld wrote: “Support for existing Office 2003 customers doesn’t end until 13 January, 2009, at which time the suite moves into what Microsoft calls ‘Extended’ support. That phase, which provides only critical security fixes to the software, runs another five years, to January 14, 2014.”
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