Australians will pay slightly more than US residents for the same software when Microsoft’s flagship Office 2010 suite launches later this year, the software giant revealed this morning, apart from the boxed retail copy of Office Professional 2010, which will cost more than $300 more locally.

The Home and Student versions of Office 2010 (which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) will sell in Australia for a recommended retail price of AU$209 for boxed copies, the company said in a statement today, with the Product Key Card version — which allows users to unlock versions of Office pre-loaded on PCs from major brands — going for $169.

In comparison, the same software will sell in the US for US$149 (AU$160) and US$119 (AU$127).

The boxed copy of Office Home and Business (which also includes Outlook) will go for a recommended retail price in Australia of AU$379, with the product key card version selling for AU$269, while it will cost US$279 (AU$299) and US$199 (AU$213) in the United States — a mark-up of $80 on the boxed copy version.

But the real killer for Australian consumers will be for the boxed copy of Office Professional 2010, which will sell for AU$849 in Australia compared with just US$499 in the US — or AU$535, meaning Australian consumers will be hit with a mark-up of over $300 if they buy the software in-store from an outlet like OfficeWorks.

Office Professional 2010 also includes Microsoft Publisher and Access, tools which are often used by small business customers. The Product Key Card version will go for AU$499 in Australia and US$349 (AU$374) in the US.

Microsoft is not allowing users to purchase cheaper upgrade licences for those who already own copies of Office 2010, saying in January that it was aiming to simplify its line-up. Today, the company’s Australian division said in a statement that the pricing for each Office 2010 version was the same as the comparable versions of Office 2007 they superceded, with the exception of Office Home and Business 2010.

“Local and regional pricing for Microsoft products is based on a number of market-specific factors including, but not limited to, our forecast of exchange rates, local taxes, duties, regulatory requirements and operational and support costs,” said Tina Flammer, office consumer product manager, Microsoft Australia. “As such, the level of resources required to conduct business varies by market, and pricing reflects this.”

“Office 2010 Professional is the same estimated retail price (ERP) as the 2007 Professional SKU was. This is also the case for the Office 2010 Home and Student SKU. Office 2010 Home and Business, which replaces Office 2007 Small Business, is $370 less expensive while having a comparable application line up – the difference being that Publisher in 2007 has been replaced for OneNote in 2010.”

The company has also setup a pre-order program online. Office 2010 will be launched to the general public in Australia in June, with businesses to get the software from May 12. A Microsoft spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment on the price difference between the company’s US and Australian product line-ups.

Image credit: Microsoft

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the timing yesterday for the Office 2010 launch, with Sharepoint 2010 to be launched at the same time.

The software has been available in beta form for customers to test since last November, although early versions leaked to the public months before that. Redmond also made a release to manufacturing version of Office 2010 available on 17 April, continuing a cycle of regular test releases for the software.

Microsoft does not appear to have conducted a large user interface upgrade with Office 2010, although there are subtle differences between the software and the company’s previous office suite, Office 2007, which received a substantial user interface re-work compared with Office 2003 — notably, the ‘ribbon’ which dramatically simplified Office’s menu and toolbar structure.

Instead, it appears to have focused on new features such as the Social Connector option in Outlook, which helps users keep track of their contacts, as well as making it easier for users to collaborate with each other.

The company plans to release Office 2010 in a variety of editions — ranging from the basic Starter edition, which only contains basic version of Word and Excel, to Home, Student and Professional editions — and the high end Professional Plus offering, which includes all of the components of Office 2010 and is aimed at business use.

The author of this article has been testing various beta versions of Office 2010 since late 2009 and has found the software stable and feature-rich, with some subtle user interface improvements in Outlook 2010 being particularly useful.

But not everyone took the decision lying down … one Keith Brooks from Boca Raton, Florida (Twitter handle: @lotusevangelist) decided to set the record straight. In a post entitled “Qantas outsources their brains too?”, he exhorted revolution:

“Qantas employees, fight this. Not because of Outlook or Notes but because of your job and the precarious nature of where this expense may send your company and thus your job.”

Qantas executive manager of corporate services and technology, David Hall, he said, should pay for the Notes move out of his bonus. But don’t worry, he said. It’s not like Hall will be around for long anyway.

“The average tenure of an executive in your position is 5.3 years so you will be fine before the next huge bill comes back to the company. Especially if you start this process in year 2 of your tenure.”

The change of email suite, he said, would affect the airline’s share price.

“By the way, if you own Qantas shares get ready to sell them. If past histories tell us anything it’s that companies that leave Lotus Notes to Exchange (or some other system) go into free fall for at least a year.

The whole deal, he said, would result in:

“A mess that anyone with some intelligence would look at and question.”

Brooks’ company, Vanessa Brooks, claims to be one of the few Lotus Business Partners in the world dedicated to Lotus infrastructure projects, according to its website, which also states it “wants to earn your respect, one project at a time”. The Lotus enthusiast, also an executive at the SAS Group, according to his LinkedIn profile, finished his article with an attempt to earn that respect from Hall:

Fujitsu, or Mr. Hall, let us help you, contact me so we can show you the error of your ways.

What, we wonder, would Brooks think of the news that Qantas flight attendants are encouraged to use their own personal email — Gmail or Hotmail — for work-related matters?

Oh dear.

Qantas today confirmed that it would shortly migrate its corporate email platform from IBM’s Lotus Notes/Domino platform to Microsoft Exchange/Outlook.

Confirming a report this morning in the AustralianIT, Qantas executive manager of corporate services and technology David Hall said the process of migrating to Exchange had already begun, with piloting underway across the airline’s executive team.

“This is part of the Qantas technology group’s focus on leveraging technology to improve efficiencies for the business and enhancing communication effectiveness across our workforce,” said Hall.

“Subject to satisfactory piloting, we anticipate the migration to be substantially completed by the end of the year.” It is expected that around 20,000 staff will be migrated to the Microsoft platform.

Hall said Qantas would also be consolidating “a large number” of Lotus Notes applications and databases as part of its drive to “standardise, reduce and simplify” the number of business applications and tools it used.

Since moving up to his current role in October 2008 from his previous position as chief financial officer at Qantas subsidiary Jetstar, Hall has made dramatic changes to Qantas’ IT support operation.

In a landmark speech in August 2009, Hall said he believed Qantas could cut its IT costs by $100 million over the next financial year. Over the past couple of years the airline has pursued a number of IT outsourcing initiatives. For example, in mid-2009 some 200 Qantas staff were offered jobs at IBM as Big Blue took over responsibility for the airline’s project delivery servies.

Image credit: Qantas