FRIDAY, April 18, (News Locale) - For some time now Microsoft's domination over the software market has been slowly eroded by the rise of a number of low cost and open source products. While Microsoft is struggling to maintain its supremacy in the choice for the operating system, the popularity of other products offered by the company, including email and Office suite has gone down. 

Now Microsoft has taken a step towards rejuvenating their flagging popularity by launching a new subscription service which will see its Office suite combined with its security suite, OneCare.

Subscribers of the service, codenamed Albany, will be able to download and install latest version of the products as long as they keep paying the subscription fee and will lose the ability to update the products once they stop the payments.

Microsoft group product manager Bryson Gordon said that combining the various products offered by the company will prove to be a more attractive and simpler option for the users.

Gordon added that subscribers of Albany will also be able to use other products offered by Microsoft including Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery and Office Live Workspace.

While computer users are more willing to pay for the latest security updates, the wide range of choices for productivity suites, including Google Docs, has seen Office flounder badly.

Microsoft hopes that by combining its security software with Office, users will find the idea of installing the latest updates of their productivity suites for just a few extra dollars very attractive. The company has already conducted a private beta of the service and is expected to soon launch a limited beta on a wider scale.

Gordon revealed that Microsoft hopes to make public the final version of the service by the end of this year.