Microsoft To Launch $6.99/Month Office 365 Plan For Individuals

[A Guy]

Microsoft To Launch $6.99/Month Office 365 Plan For Individuals This Spring

Microsoft today announced a new plan for Office 365 that’s geared to individuals who want to subscribe to its suite of productivity applications. For $6.99/month (or $69/year), you will be able to get a single license for Office 365 that you can use on one PC or Mac and one tablet. This new plan will launch later this spring.

Just like Microsoft’s other Office 365 subscriptions, the plan will include 60 minutes of Skype calling per month and 20GB of additional OneDrive storage. Microsoft isn’t saying which applications are included in this subscription, but chances are, it will include all of the access to the core Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access).

Source

A Guy

 

[TanyaC]

And so it begins...

 

[Barman58]

I have a natural dislike of subscription services, for software, but not sure if it's the right way to be. If you upgrade whenever the latest release is issued It may be that subscription is the cheaper option, I know there's the statement that you never own the software, but technically the same is true with the current system. Obviously if you are part of the majority of users who keep using software long after the upgrade to the "latest and Greatest" is available then the subscription model fails.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
in say 5 years it's 350 USD - to say nothing of any price increases.
Then you have to add appropriate taxes so you are talking 400 USD or more.

The copy of Office I have (Office 2010) cost me around 90 USD ONCE (student and teacher edition) - works perfectly even today and I can use it on 3 PC's.

What's the best value !!!

I have an intrinsic dislike too of subscription services - especially when they bundle in all sorts of EXTRA stuff that I don't need such as SKYPE or cloud disk storage.

For instance the Broadband services on offer via hi speed cable all seem to want you to take TV and PHONE as well -- I don't NEED the phone landline any more and most of the TV packages on offer are junk as well.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TVeblen]

I'm with y'all. I loathe monthly subscriptions of any kind - especially with automatic payments.
I would be far friendlier to a one time subscription fee (lifetime would be nice), but even a year to year subscription would be better.

A legal issue the world is going to be dealing with is what to do with a deceased's online 'estate'.
Automatic monthly payments will continue to accrue unless you leave instructions and passwords to your next of kin. In some cases this is going to be quite a task.

 

[ThrashZone]

Seems if a product isn't selling it goes monthly to make it more affordable,
Seems Adobe is using the same mind set to increase Photoshop.....,
I did try the cc6 release but it was 10 bucks a month which I doubt I'll pay anymore or even re-subscribe but regularly 49.99 a month,
Too many free offerings that aren't bloated,
Constant revenues I believe is the mind set or model,
Cheers.

 

[TanyaC]

A lot of software these days also seem to be implementing "silent updates".
So, considering just this side of things, you have a problem with each major update - they introduce plenty of bugs. Then it takes weeks or months for those bugs to be rectified. If you are a business and dependent on those products god help you.

The moral - you have lost control of your own computing environment.

Here in Aus we get charged foreign transaction fees (~ 3%). Don't know if the subscription would be billed from M$ Australia, but they would just add on extra anyway. We have often paid 40% more than the US for software.

Like Jimbo, we purchased office 2010 Home and Student for $99. We were allowed to install it on 3 PCs. So $33 per PC for around 4 years = $8.25 per year. Haven't seen the AU pricing yet, but if it's $6.99 per month USD that will be $8.99 per month AUD, or around $108 per year. That's one hell of a massive price increase already.

And that's for one PC. So if I were to have this subscription for the 5 PCs that used office, I would be up for $44.95 per month. I'm on a pension. That's completely unaffordable. Whether I like it or not, I would then be forced to stop using Microsoft products and find free or cheaper alternatives.

M$ again have blown off more customers and priced themselves out of the market.

And yet another person who has control of your bank account. Here in AU, no bank can/will protect you from companies taking money from your account if you do it via a card number, which in most cases is the only option.

For example, I had a contract with the ISP Dodo. I cancelled my contract with them verbally and in writing. They kept taking money out of my account. I had to close my bank account to stop them.

If you cancel your M$ subscription they too potentially can just keep charging you. I'm sure there will be cancellation notification periods, possibly even (eventually if not initially), minimum subscription periods and so on. Add that to the potential price.

 

[Sarris]

Kingsoft Office or Libre Office.....FREE!

I give the Microsoft thieves as little $$$$$ as possible.

 

[Layback Bear]

I like it this way.
Go to the store and buy Office.
Install Office using the DVD and install the key.
Now you can keep Office updated and use it any time you want to.
**
At this point none of you Office personal information is in a Cloud.
Their is not bank account information floating around the net for hackers.
You don't have to be online to use Office.
**
If your business needs of Microsoft Office only extends to month at a time you don't have a Office program problem you have a business problem.

 

[Fantail]

I don't feel bad at all now with '07.

Seriously I mean it's word documents, occasional spreadsheets & power point. MS can pack sand if they want me to think I need a newer version of office for that. They can pack that sand in other orifices if they think I'm going to subscribe to their cloud / 365 plan.

 

[uDraft]

I am shocked that these huge corporations might want to lock in revenue sources.
As a self-employed engineering technician I use a pile of programs. My monthly software rental will soon outstrip my income.
That is if I was ignorant enough to pay them.
They been sniffing around this strategy for over 10 years now.
Come to think of it, when I first started using computers in the mid-1980s, I don't think we owned any of the hardware or software. Of course back them you rented/lease or purchased the hardware and the software was free.