BANGALORE, INDIA: Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited has announced that the Microsoft Office 2007 Home & Student (H&S) edition will be available for Rs. 3,699 during the festive season.  Aimed at benefitting families, home users, self employed professionals and educationalists/academicians who want the world's leading productivity software for their new PC or laptop.

For a two month period, Microsoft Office 2007 retail packs will be available at 10 more stores in the top 7 cities including LFRs such as Croma, eZone, Reliance Retail and Vijay Sales. This takes the total number of stores to more than 80 across India. 

"We believe that the wider availability and increased affordability of Microsoft Office 2007 will make it much easier for consumers to get the world's leading productivity software along with their new PC or laptop.  This festive offer is also very compelling for existing Microsoft Office users looking to upgrade to the latest version with its easy-to-use Fluent interface and host of innovative new features that deliver better results, faster," said Sanjay Manchanda, director, Microsoft business division, India. 

India is emerging as the fifth largest retail destination globally and is estimated to grow to US$ 427 billion by 2010. A big part of this is consumer electronics including personal computing. According to NASSCOM report on IT in the economy of India' there are 23 PCs per 1000 people (population base of 1.1 billion) as of October 2007 and tier 2 cities (beyond the top 8) account for more than 50 percent of new PC sales. Microsoft has seen a triple digit growth in its Microsoft Office sales to consumers and small businesses. 

The rapid growth in organized retail is changing how consumers buy computer hardware and software, who increasingly want to learn and experience the product before purchasing. Keeping with this trend, Microsoft has increased focus not only on in-store marketing but also on experiential zones at the stores where they can see and experience Microsoft Office 2007 H&S in action right on their favourite laptop or PCs.

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is the essential software suite for home computer users that enables you to quickly and easily create great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and organize your notes and information in one place, making it easier and more enjoyable for you to get things done. This suite includes Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office Excel 2007, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 and Microsoft Office One Note 2007. The latest version features the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface that exposes commonly used commands, enhanced graphics, and formatting capabilities that enable you to create high-quality documents, plus a powerful note and information organization tool, and more reliability and security with the Document Inspector tool and improved automatic document recovery. With these enhancements, Office Home and Student 2007 makes it easier and more enjoyable for you to get tasks done at home.