UK Customers To Pay Premium For Microsoft Office 2010

As expected, boxed, off-the-shelf copies of Microsoft Office 2010 are set to cost significantly more than their US counterpart in yet another example of rip-off Britain.

The US version of Office Professional 2010 will cost $500 or roughly £318 (that's a £112 difference) while the Office Home and Business edition will retail for $279 (or £176 at today's exchange rate), that's a £64 price difference or more than a third extra.

As for the Office Home and Student version, its suggested retail price is £110 while US customers can pick it up for $150 or £95 only, a difference of £25.

The Product Manager for Microsoft Office told ITPro that it was apparently because there are different market dynamics including channel margins, local market conditions and foreign exchange which the company needs to take into consideration.

Earlier today, Microsoft had to correct the price of their Office Professional 2010 which was incorrectly listed as £400 instead of £430, which makes it only £15 cheaper than the 2007 version of the popular business suite.

The company issued a statement saying that "All other prices quoted are correct. Our apologies for any confusion or inconvenience that this oversight may have caused."