Reported freshly by the WinInformant Paul Thurrott. This week, Microsoft revealed that the company will expand its Microsoft Office 2003 lineup to include new basic and professional enterprise editions and a developer-oriented release called Visual Studio Tools for Office. But not all Office products will be available at retail locations, and the most compelling version for consumers, Office 2003 Basic Edition, will ship only with new PCs. According to my sources, Microsoft will launch Office 2003 in early June at Microsoft TechEd 2003, and the product will ship later that month.



The new Office 2003 Basic Edition will be bundled only with new PCs and will include Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook. Office 2003 Standard Edition, which will be available in retail stores, will include the same applications, plus Microsoft PowerPoint. Office 2003 Professional Edition will be another retail release and will include everything from the Standard edition, plus Microsoft Access, Publisher, and Business Contact Manager for Outlook. The new Office 2003 Professional Enterprise Edition will be available only through volume licensing--the primary way that large enterprises purchase the suite--and will include all the applications from the professional edition, plus Microsoft InfoPath. Office 2003 Small Business Edition will include all the applications from the standard edition, plus Publisher and Business Contact Manager for Outlook. The company will also continue selling--at retail only--a low-cost Office Students and Teachers Edition, which includes the same applications as the standard edition. And Microsoft will replace the current Office Developer Edition with a product called Visual Studio Tools for Office, although how this product will be licensed and distributed is unclear.

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