Microsoft details Office 2010 pricing for US

Office 2010 is set for release later this year

Microsoft has announced US prices for the retail versions of Office 2010, the forthcoming refresh of its application suite due for release this year. Prices for other territories including the UK are set to be revealed at a later date, possibly by the end of January.

In a posting on Microsoft's Office 2010 blog, Office general manager Rachel Bondi disclosed pricing for the four versions of Office 2010 that will be available via retail outlets in the US.

These are Office Home and Student at $149 (£93), Office Home and Business at $279 (£174), Office Professional at $499 (£310), and Office Professional Academic at $99 (£62).

Professional Academic is a newly added version that appears to have the same applications as Professional, but will be available only through authorised academic resellers.

The purpose of this new version is to "expose students to the breadth of the Office offerings and prepare them to use the productivity tools they'll need to know to be successful during school and in their career", according to Microsoft.

A spokesperson for the company warned that the official UK prices are likely to be different from a straight dollar conversion of each US price, as proved to be the case with the different versions of Windows 7.

Microsoft also detailed how much it would cost owners of new PCs to upgrade from the Office 2010 Starter edition to a version with greater functionality. Starter edition consists of just Word and Excel, and is set to be available pre-installed on many new PCs once Office 2010 launches.

Users simply purchase a product key card that unlocks the extra functionality, costing $119 (£74) for Home and Student, $199 (£124) for Home and Business, and $349 (£218) for Professional. Again, the UK prices are likely to differ from these.

Bondi said that there has been "record interest" in the Office 2010 beta, and that more than two million people around the world had downloaded it in the seven weeks since its release.