By Jo Best, 23 November 2005 16:45
NEWS
Apple has quietly launched an offer to give Mac buyers money off Microsoft software.
The 'Office Bonus' offer, which runs until the end of January next year, gives shoppers 50 per cent off Microsoft Office for Mac when they buy a new Apple desktop or laptop.
Savings on the software bundle could range from £50 for a Student and Teacher edition, to more than £200 for the Standard edition.
Apple is seemingly hoping to cash in on the 'iPod halo' effect where new buyers of Apple's signature music player then go on to buy more Apple kit. Analysts believe that more than one million Windows users may have made the switch to Mac this year, mostly driven by this halo effect.
Apple sold 1.2 million Macs during the most recent quarter of this financial year.
Comments
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1. anonymous
My understanding is that a company such as Apple could not discount Microsoft's software unless Microsoft:
A. Approved it.
B. Co-sponsored it with Apple.
The article sounds as if it is all Apple's doing, which is more than likely not possible in the realms of marketing and contracts.
As for the 1 million switchers, some may be iPod-related, and that has helped build awareness for Apple as a viable vendor, but I believe it is Microsoft's lack of stable OS that is turning more and more of us Windows users to the Mac, which I doubt has the issues of XP or 2000...
2. Don Tregartha
What's the big surprise? Microsoft has been a major partner with Apple since day one. Neither business is hung up with the other's activities as the various mac/win evangelos would have us believe. Get real - it's business.