Last Friday I did a post about the Office 2010 prices. When I was looking at thought prices I saw two things, one no upgrade prices, and two Product Key Card prices. When I first saw that I thought “oh cool there doing separate prices for download only versions of word.” this was not the case.
If you have not herd yet Microsoft has made deals with OEM’s to have Office 2010 pre-installed on new PC’s. So now when you get a new PC form Dell you probably get a trial of Office 2007 and you get the full version of Microsoft Works. Once Office 2010 is out you will get full use of Office, for a price. In order for you to get to use the version of Office that comes with your computer you have to buy a product key card at a store or I would assume at time of purchase with the OEM. Which then you have to type in to get Office 2010 to work. I like this except the part that there is no physical media. The problem I have is what if the drive on the computer goes well unless you have a image of the drive then your copy of Office is gone. At least if you had a DVD, CD, or even a flash drive with the setup on it you could just reinstall it.
Personally I would buy the physical media, but I just always think what if. I know not everyone dose and that is ok. I just hope that Microsoft will tell us more soon about how the product key card process will work a little bit more clearly soon.