Microsoft announced on Tuesday it would sell a package of four server products to U.S. companies by the end of this year for 15 U.S. dollars per PC user per month.
The software giant listed the four products as Exchange On-line, SharePoint On-line, Communications On-line and Live Meeting.
All these products would also be sold to global businesses in the first half of 2009, Microsoft said.
The company also planned to sell a lightweight version that gives limited e-mail and Sharepoint access to "deskless" workers like nurses, factory employees and salespeople for three dollars per user per month.
Microsoft's announcements coincided with its annual conference for partner companies that resell its software to other businesses, held this year in Houston, Texas.
Competitors from search leader Google to IBM and business back-office software maker Salesforce.com are pushing on-line alternatives to Microsoft's installed programs, arguing that this approach is less expensive and more flexible. For example, updated versions of the software can be delivered instantly over the Internet.
For its part, Microsoft has stuck by its pronouncement that consumers and businesses will opt for a mix of remotely hosted programs and desktop or on-premise programs.
In this case, Microsoft will still require companies to buy Outlook and other desktop programs powered by the remote servers.
As an incentive, Microsoft also told partners it would give them a cut of contracts for on-line services, totaling 18 percent the first year and 6 percent each year thereafter.
"We wanted to make sure partners were really encouraged to transform their business, too, as the world moves toward software plus service model," said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in Microsoft's information worker software group.
Capossela estimated the partners' slice of sales will add up to more than their current markup on packaged software, and that business customers will end up paying less for the same Microsoft software.
Source:Xinhua
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