Monday, June 25, 2012: Microsoft will begin to phase out Office Starter 2010. All OEM (original equipment manufacturers) PC partners were notified of the move recently, as Microsoft would be releasing the next edition of its office suite named Office 2013 later this year or in early 2013. The Office Starter Edition 2010 which currently offers a miniature version of Word and Excel was offered for free to attract new PC buyers to get one of the paid versions such as the $150 Office Home and Student 2010, or the $280 Office Home and Business 2010.
"New shipment of PCs will not include Office Starter 2010," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a Tom's Hardware report. "After Windows 8 becomes available, most new PCs shipped will not have Office Starter. People who use Office Starter 2010 today will continue to be able to use the product for the life of their PC. For Windows7/Office Starter 2010 users who want to upgrade their PC to Windows 8 and continue using Office Starter 2010, they will have to install an update to Microsoft Office 2010 which is available today."

The Office Starter Edition 2010 was the first version of Microsoft's market-leading desktop suite to include advertisements. Up until now, OEM desktops and laptops typically came with Office 2010 pre-installed. The users have access to the Starter demo edition while the installation files for the full version is kept at another partition. Microsoft expected the users to get frustrated of the limitations and with that the users would purchase a license for the full version.

Things did not work as planned by Microsoft. Describing it as a 'bad user experience' in Windows 8 and the company decided to dissolve it.