Microsoft dumps Office Starter from PC maker choices

21.06.2012
Microsoft is dumping its Office Starter edition as Windows 8 and the next edition of the suite, dubbed Office 2013, near completion and release later this year and early next.

The company blamed a "bad user experience" in Windows 8 for the move.

ZDNet blogger on the demise of Office Starter 2010 earlier on Thursday.

Office Starter 2010, which Microsoft created in 2009, was the company's replacement for Microsoft Works, an entry-level application suite that had been offered to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) for bundling with new PCs.

Starter included Word 2010 and Excel 2010. As Microsoft's free OEM offer, Starter was to give new PC buyers a taste of the full suite in the hope that they would later pony up for one of the paid editions, such as the $150 Office Home and Student 2010, or the $280 Office Home and Business 2010.

Office Starter 2010 also included advertisements, the first edition of Microsoft's market-leading desktop suite to do that, and also limited the functionality of Word and Excel. They were not time-sensitive versions, however, as Office trial editions have been.