Digital Home Thoughts: Microsoft Goes Software Subscription With Equipt

"Microsoft has released more details about its new software subscription bundle that went into testing in mid-April. The bundle has been officially dubbed Microsoft Equipt and will be made available in mid-July 2008 at nearly 700 Circuit City stores in the US. Equipt licenses will cost $70 per year and will include Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Office Live Workspace, and Windows Live tools. Windows Live OneCare and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 are the only applications in the suite that are not currently offered for free. Microsoft says it created Equipt in response to customer feedback: these are the applications that users wanted the most, and they were frustrated with having to download, install, and keep them all up-to-date, one by one."



Subscription software is a tricky business: most consumers aren't fond of paying for something year after year without good reason. Equipt might do the trick though, because offering Office 2007 Home edition along with virus scanning on three computers for $70 per year isn't very expensive when you consider most consumers are probably spending almost that much on anti-virus software alone for a couple of PCs. What about you? Does Equipt strike the right balance of features and price for you to sign up? If you already have Office 2007, it's probably a moot point mind you...