Microsoft Silently Increased Price of Office for Mac

I have recently read in the Computerworld (an IT magazine) that Microsoft has quietly raised the price of Office for Mac edition. The increase made is as much as 17 percent. The new pricing scheme offers the single-license Office for Mac Home & Student at US$140, which is 17% more than the previous value US$120.

Office for Mac Home & Business is a now available for US$220 that is 10% higher than the previous US$200. It is an edition which equips the Home & Student’s Word, PowerPoint and Excel with Outlook email client. In addition to Mac Office price rise, Microsoft has also stopped the sale of multi-license bundles.

Although, there are no indications on when did the price hike took place, but Computerworld’s investigation has revealed a search engine cache that shows the hikes from 2 February, 2013. It may be possible that the company had implemented the increased prices on 29 January when it launched Office 365 and 365 Home Premium.

I think the rise in price is probably made to attract the consumers towards company’s newest Office 365 subscription plans. Luckily, Amazon is still selling the product at the old price as well as offering multi-license bundles (obviously till the stocks last).

China Planning to lift the Ban on Gaming Consoles

Do you know gaming consoles are banned in China? It has been more than a decade since the year 2000, when Chinese cultural ministers banned manufacture, sale and import of game consoles due to ‘potential harm to mental and physical development of the young.’

However, a good news seems to be coming for game lovers in the country as an anonymous Government source from China’s Ministry of Culture said that the government is reviewing the present China gaming consoles ban. This could be a more good news for some of the major vendors in the field such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo who have failed to gain an official foothold in China.

There is a gaming console ‘iQue DS’ which is available in the country since 2005 with the help of loopholes in the system. This can be plugged directly into the TV to play several downloadable Nintendo 64 games. However, with the lift of the ban, the gamers will get to enjoy more games.

According to Ars Technica, a technology news website, it won’t be all game for game console vendors even if the gaming consoles ban is lifted. Challenges such as rampant piracy, bootleg games will be some of the hurdles they have to face for conducting a smooth business in one of the largest markets of the world.

Skype to Replace Windows Live Messenger by March 15

Are you a Messenger user? Have you received the mail titled ‘Important info about your Messenger account’? Yes, Microsoft has sent this email to 100+ million MSN users informing about the closure of Windows Live Messenger service. Thus, it is official now that this service will completely retire on 15 March 2013 except in mainland China.

All Messenger users (more than 100 million) will be integrated to Skype as part of  (Skype to replace Messenger) discontinuation process. This process was started several weeks ago with the release of Skype 6.0 for Windows and Mac. Microsoft has acquired Skype back in May 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Microsoft will be integrating the great features of two messaging platforms. The company is encouraging users to download Skype (latest version) and sing in with their MSN ID (Microsoft account) to get all their MSN contacts on their fingertips. Skype says that it will help users in the coming months for a smooth transition from Windows Live Messenger.

Although, the news of Skype March 15 update comes as no surprise since Skype had been talking about the integration since November, 2012. Microsoft has also provided a hint at its 1Q Fiscal Year results announcement by revealing that Skype usage had rose 58% as compared to the year previous year with about 280 million users at that time.

Both the companies see this integration as a successful step and so are the expectations of users.

Bloomberg Reported HTC Windows RT Tablets Set to Come in 2013

HTC, a Taiwanese manufacturer of tablets and smartphones, was on a silent side for tablet models in this year’s market. However, the company is said to be entering in the market next year again with Windows RT tablets.

According to Bloomberg, an American multinational mass media corporation which provides business and financial market news, a source familiar with HTC’s plans said that the company is presently working on two tablets; a 12-inch and a 7-inch version which feature telephony capabilities.

Apart from running on Windows RT, these two tablets will be featuring Qualcomm processors and are tentatively scheduled for a launch during the Q3 2013. The company has also considered Windows 8 tablets before, but the plans were dropped as the tablets would cost US dollar 1,000 (approximately).

HTC has released only one tablet, the 7-inch Flyer till now which is powered by Google Android. However, the company did not get the expected success and; therefore, focused its efforts on smartphones. The company hopes to make a comeback in the tablet market with its two Windows RT tablets.

Although, HTC was dropped for participation from the initial round of Windows RT devices, but the company is now seen as a likely partner after successful collaboration between Microsoft and HTC for Windows Phone 8.