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Office 365 ushers in an era of subscription billing.After months of beta testing, Microsoft on Tuesday announced the worldwide availability of Office 365 Home Premium. It's a departure from previous versions of Office, and while Microsoft likes to refer to Windows 8 as a reimagining of Windows, Office 365 is a "reinvention" of Redmond's popular Office product line for consumers. Unlike previous versions, Office 365 is a cloud-service.
An annual subscription runs $99.99, which breaks down to $8.34 per month, and allows you use to use Office 365 across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs, and Macs. It also comes with extra SkyDrive storage (20GB) and Skype calling (60 minutes per month).
"Today’s launch of Office 365 Home Premium marks the next big step in Microsoft’s transformation to a devices and services business," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "This is so much more than just another release of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service with all the full-featured Office applications people know and love, together with impressive new cloud and social benefits."
One of the benefits of moving to the cloud is that new features and services stream to subscribers as soon as they are ready, rather than through periodic Service Packs or new releases. Subscribers are therefore always up to date without having to worry about applying upgrades.
Coinciding with Office 365 Home Premium is the release of Office 365 University for college or university students, faculty, and staff. The University release is offered at a reduced rate of $79.99 for a four-year subscription, which breaks down to $1.67 per month.
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Scatter
January 30, 2013 at 11:07pm
I have a hard time getting past the fact that when all is said and done all I want to do is write a document. Do I really want and need to pay for a yearly subscription to do that? No, I don't.
Breakingcustom
February 01, 2013 at 8:30am
Then this isn't for you, but for some people it is a steal. You have 4-6 machines running at your house and you use Office quite a bit, then I don't know how you could pass this up.
Breakingcustom
January 30, 2013 at 11:18am
I think it's about time they offered it as a subscription model. I'm a firm believer Office 365 is one of Microsoft's best decisions. I've done multiple email migrations for companies (extremely small to larger) ones and they love it. And with the new 365 coming out that runs off of Exchange 2013, SkyDrive Pro integration will be key.
I know this is for the Home side of things, but when it comes down to it this isn't a bad deal. For people who want to use LibreOffice/OpenOffice then more power to them, but for people who prefer Office then this is a steal in my opinion. When it comes to it, $9.99/mo is dirt cheap if you need it on multiple computers. Plus 20GB of free storage is great as well since DropBox only gives you 2GB free off the bat and I believe Google Drive is 5GB.
If you were to break down $9.99/mo I can guarantee if a consumer looked at what they bought in a month, they probably wasted a lot more than $9.99 (although this wouldn't be a waste).
Scatter
January 30, 2013 at 2:10am
So it sounds like I'll just continue to use the older version of Office 2010 that I already own for years to come.
Peanut Fox
January 29, 2013 at 11:28pm
Still a hard sell to most home consumers. Why spend so much when free alternatives do everything you need them to do. You'll spend more on this than you will on any operating, which quite frankly is ridiculous.
Hell. It's much cheaper to buy yesterday's version of Office, and pay 50 bucks for 3 or 4 years.
I guess if you're a small business that needs Office maybe, but I don't think many of those exist.
Electrik
January 29, 2013 at 7:56pm
So, I'm assuming that this cloud service is available for Android tablets? They've opened a billion extra devices up to their software.
Irregardless of whether you like Balmer, MS, Office or the cloud, this is actually pretty clever marketing.
Their pitchman is an obnoxious slob, but ya gotta admit, there's some pretty smart people at MS.
Please don't clobber me too hard for this ;}
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
January 29, 2013 at 7:14pm
Guess I won't be using Microsoft's Office products any more. This cloud bullshit is for lemmings.
I'm sure there's room up Ballmer's ass for the Office suite, right next to Windows 8.
anc51699
January 30, 2013 at 9:25am
The software isn't run exclusively from the cloud, you still download it and install it like every previous version of Office. You maintain your subscription, devices, and downloads all from the Office website. The cloud piece to this is a cloud-based "Lite" version of Office that can be run on public or guest PC's without installing it. Android and iOS are coming soon, too.
Nakura
January 29, 2013 at 4:39pm
Or you can download libreoffice and save your documents to google drive or dropbox for free.
txfeinbergs
January 29, 2013 at 4:54pm
Libreoffice is only for homeless poor people that can't afford real SW.
Nakura
January 30, 2013 at 9:25am
Why would I pay for something when there is a free alternative that does everything I need just as well? Since when was software only deemed "real" when you have to pay for it? You must be a real idiot if you only go for software if it has a price tag.
txfeinbergs
January 29, 2013 at 4:26pm
The crap won't even download! Apparently Microsoft couldn't conceive of the possibility that if they sold only diskless versions of their product, that their download servers would need an upgrade. Two hours and only 25% complete so far. Idiots! (and I have a 75 Mbps connection, so not a problem on my end.
Fixedu
January 29, 2013 at 12:07pm
I was an early adopter because Microsoft Office Live hosted my business and personal websites, but when they discontinued that service I was given the full trial of Office 365. In order to have more than one user, (my wife uses as well) I have to pay per user. So double the monthly rate for me. I don't think that is a bargain, I'll still use my Office 2010 on our home PC, laptops etc. I also divorced one website from Microsoft, or I'd be paying three times.
anc51699
January 29, 2013 at 10:51am
I was skeptical of why they would all of the sudden switch to a subscription-based service, but after learning a bit more about it, it does simplify things a lot. They throw in all of the Office-suite programs, including Access and Publisher. You still download it onto your PC like you always do, or you can run it from the cloud on a guest/public PC. You can put it onto 5 PCs (2 for Univ. version) and manage/remove devices from the office website, rather than calling up "Justin" from some classic outsourced tech support center. You're always current with the latest version, and you get a large chunk of cloud space as a bonus. $100 a year for all of that actually sounds a lot better to me than buying Office Pro for $500 and having to spend another $500 3-4 years from now when Office 201X comes out. Plus I'm sure there will be promos and discounts around to make it even cheaper when it comes time to buy.
praack
January 30, 2013 at 7:56am
this like all office versions is really focused on the enterprise, consumer is just a side job. consumers usually don't use access, powerpoint, publisher- heck most don't use excel much.
if you shop is all microsoft then you know the push to dump your network drives and move to microsoft cloud- the sales push is stunning- so to see this cloud based solution aside sharepoint and the rest is the next step.
as for fanboys like anc51699 - let them pay the subscription- when i move from my office 2007 on my home pc it will be to libre office
i only use word anyway at home
p
anc51699
January 30, 2013 at 9:24am
You have a wonderful way with words, sir.
You know the subscription is optional, right? If you don't want it or don't need any of the other programs besides Word, buy a PKC version of Office, or use a crappy freeware alternative to it if you have a sideways log up your rear about it.
