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Microsoft has still to announce the date that it will end subscription services for Equipt, after it announced that it would be killing it off back in November.
Speaking to The Register, a spokeswoman for Microsoft said that it was currently negotiating with DSGi to remove the software from sale, but that until that was completed, no date for the end of the service would be given, other than the first half of 2009.
"The exact date when the product will be discontinued has yet to be decided but Microsoft is working closely with its retail partners, Circuit City in the US and DSGi in the UK to remove Microsoft Equipt from retail distribution and to communicate this move to customers," the spokeswoman said.
Equipt was Microsoft’s answer to SasS for consumers, with it bundling Office Live and OneCare in a subscription service, as part of a one-year subscription.
However, with the collapse of its US retail partner Circuit City in November, the future of the service was thrown up in the air, despite having only launched in the UK through DSGi a month before.
The fate of Equipt was sealed in November when the vendor announced that it was planning to stop charging for antivirus products and replace it with a free range of software aimed at providing customers with out of the box security to combat the rising tide of security threats.
"As a result of this new offering Microsoft will end subscription services for Microsoft Equipt in the first half of 2009," the spokeswoman added. "This was a difficult decision as Equipt was well received by both customers and partners."
The vendor is offering customers a full refund and a complementary copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student as compensation.
