Fully functional Office 2008 for Mac trial is now available
Those who want to try out Office 2008 for Mac but don't want to fork over hundreds of dollars just yet can now use a 30-day trial of the software. Microsoft's Mac BU made the fully-functional trial available on its website today …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's Mac BU announced Mac Office 2008 pricing and packages back in September 2007, with single licenses running into the hundreds of dollars — a steep ask for a suite that had been on shelves since early 2008. Only now, more than a year after launch, is the unit putting a fully functional 30-day trial on its website.
The timing matters because the Mac productivity market had alternatives by then: launch-week coverage such as Daring Fireball's Keynote Roundup showed Apple's iWork being weighed directly against Office at exactly the moment buyers were deciding. A free trial lowers the evaluation barrier that the 2007 Mac Office 2008 pricing announcement set so high.
First-order effects
- Mac users who were priced out of an impulse purchase can now run the full suite for 30 days before committing several hundred dollars.
Second-order effects
- Apple's iWork competes against a trial-backed incumbent, forcing its value pitch to stand up in side-by-side evaluations rather than on price lists alone.
Third-order effects
- If trial-as-funnel becomes standard for desktop suites, the Mac office-software market shifts toward conversion-rate competition, where the winner is whoever best turns free evaluations into paid seats rather than whoever ships features first.
The trend: Desktop software vendors are treating free trials as a standard sales channel on the Mac, where high sticker prices meet credible lower-cost alternatives like iWork.