Cheaper Version of Microsoft Office TBA
Microsoft is planning to offer a new version of Office, at a lower price: Office 365 Personal, which will cost $70 a year or $7 a month. This version will allow a person to install it on two devices,"one PC or Mac and one tablet," Microsoft's Chris Schneider explains in a blog post. Apparently Microsoft still doesn't get it that people DO NOT want subscriptions.
Today I want to announce Office 365 Personal. Coming this Spring, Office 365 Personal is a new, great option for people interested in using Office 365. It's designed for an individual, allows for one PC or Mac and one tablet to be connected to the service and will be available for $69.99 USD/year or $6.99 USD/ month (ERP)1. We recognize that there are households of all shapes and sizes and we're committed to delivering the right Office for everyone - whether that be one person or an entire household.
Additionally, we'll continue to offer our Office 365 Home Premium subscription for households, but we'll be changing the name to Office 365 Home. You'll see this change when Office 365 Personal becomes available. Whichever Office 365 subscription you choose, you'll get all of the subscription benefits including 60 minutes of Skype calling per month, 20 GB of additional OneDrive storage and always be up to date with the most recent version of Office.
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Senior Member
Posts: 3372
Joined: 2007-05-31
do they know that now the open source office do more and are... totaly free???
few ago M$ Office had still a step further but since the last office it is now less versatile and have less tool...
Senior Member
Posts: 1820
Joined: 2005-08-12
Well, I opted for Office 365 a year ago, and renewed the subscription. I'm really satisfied with their services.
Over here, in Poland, it's a great deal for pro users (for home users, read paragraph below). To stay up to date I'd have to buy a boxed version every 2 years or so, and the cheapest commercial version of Office - Home and Small Business costs >$400 over here (converted to USD), while Professional is around $800. Office 365 is more expensive in Europe than in US, but a year of Small Business Premium, which includes Professional Plus desktop products for 5 computers (using it on 3 now) and all the online services, costs me 125€ a year, which is like $175 ($215 with VAT). Effectively I get more for less. Installation is fast and simple.
Of course, there are drawbacks - it could cost less, and if I decide to stop paying, I'm left without service (I could just download the documents from Skydrive Pro). Also, you can't link SBP subscription with Visio, as Visio is available only for Enterprise plans (still available and affordable for single user).
Also, the personal edition is kinda so-so. $70 a year is not impressive compared to $100 a year for the option that can be shared in household. On top of that, I can remember paying around $80 for a boxed household version of Office 2007, which my parents and brother are still using and enjoying. It was a great deal, as it wasn't a great cost, especially after being used for so many years by several people, and as today, there's hardly any reason to upgrade. No wonder MS want to avoid such situations to happen again and going hardcore with a subscription service. Yes, you still have boxed options, but they're not that great as 2007 deal.
MS is not the only company to do it. Software as a service becomes more and more common. I can remember outrage related to Adobe discontinuing boxed versions of Photoshop. However in Adobe case they significantly increased the product cost, while Office 365 at least costs less for the commercial usage. Perhaps if the boxed versions were significantly cheaper in US, I might understand the disappointment and frustration.
do they know that now the open source office do more and are... totaly free???
few ago M$ Office had still a step further but since the last office it is now less versatile and have less tool...
Free alternatives may be good for many and they should be evaluated. While I generally recommend MS Office, I'd consider it a bad practice not to at least try out some free alternatives. Perhaps they'll be good enough, or maybe even better for some situations.
I also have to contradict the statement that new MS Office does less. It's just made up and completely not true. Each consecutive version adds new features. I'd suggest trying it out before claiming such false statements.
Senior Member
Posts: 366
Joined: 2003-10-26
Software as a service is a crock of ****. Just ask the German courts

Software is a product and shouldn't be able to be sold as a service as all too often they are not services at all. It's just a money grab.
If they reduced the excessive costs there would be less piracy of their software and more satisfied customers. Currently that's not the case.
Senior Member
Posts: 168
Joined: 2012-09-28
Subscription? Cough...torrent....cough....free...
Senior Member
Posts: 1093
Joined: 2006-05-04
Pretty much this. MS can go and suck a fat one with their subscription services.