THE VOLE ANNOUNCED today that it would be releasing what the company has been internally referring to as a "value box" of low-end productivity software, dubbed Albany, on some sort of a subscription basis, after having been beta tested recently.

The set includes Office Home and Student 2007; Office Live Workspaces; Windows Live Mail, Messenger, photo sharing software and more, in a bid to compete with its bitter rival, Google, who offer their Google Docs for free online.

Bryson Gordon, a Mighty Soft Product Manager, swears blind that the software isn’t just productivity play, saying that it offers everything that Volish customers have called "essential" products for their computers.

Albany does seem to pack in rather a lot. As well as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, the package also includes a plug-in for Office Live Workspaces so that users will be able to save and share documents online from inside the Office interface. Microsoft has also added its firewall and antivirus programme, Windows Live OneCare, as well as basics like mail, instant-messaging and photo-sharing applications.

The main advantage of Albany is that it lets users install all the products in one go – instead of having to do them all separately – as is the case when each is bought individually. But it remains to be seen what the package would set you back, because the Vole is staying tight-lipped about Albany’s pricing. It’s also not saying whether a subscription to the "value box" would be a yearly or a monthly fee. Google will just have to wait with baited breath (not) until the end of the year to find out. µ

L’Inq
PC World