Microsoft Releases Office 365 Home Premium

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Microsoft Corp. today announced worldwide availability of Office 365 Home Premium, a reinvention of the company’s flagship Office product line for consumers. Office 365 Home Premium is a cloud service designed for busy households and people juggling ever-increasing work and family responsibilities. The new offering includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications; works across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs and Macs; and comes with extra SkyDrive storage and Skype calling — all for US$99.99 for an annual subscription, the equivalent of US$8.34 per month.
 
Microsoft Corp. today announced worldwide availability of Office 365 Home Premium, a reinvention of the company’s flagship Office product line for consumers. Office 365 Home Premium is a cloud service...
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Yeah...no thanks. Office 2010 will work just fine for me. I might be paranoid (I am) but all this cloud shit is bad news long term.
 
Wait - a monthly fee to use an office program? Is there a stand alone version? Computers were cooler when they were 386/486/pentiums and you know, you owned your software, and you had control over your pc, and DLC didn't exist, and like a billion other things =\
 
Kongar said:
Wait - a monthly fee to use an office program? Is there a stand alone version? Computers were cooler when they were 386/486/pentiums and you know, you owned your software, and you had control over your pc, and DLC didn't exist, and like a billion other things =\
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Yes, I have Office 2013 as a standalone. This is just an extra way to buy access to a cloud version of it if you wanted to.
 
Stand alone Office 2013 should of also launched today for those that don't want the monthly fees, and but it also seems to be heavily cloud based (fastest launching and lightest running version of Word).
 
GoldenTiger said:
That's actually.... not a bad deal for a lot of people.
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Office: Pay Forever Edition Premium isn't a bad deal? Depends on your point of view. Seems like a lot of people don't realize you're time bombing your docs with this leasing arrangement, and MS isn't exactly making that abundantly clear in the advertising.
 
odditory said:
Office: Pay Forever Edition Premium isn't a bad deal? Depends on your point of view. Seems like a lot of people don't realize you're time bombing your docs with this leasing arrangement, and MS isn't exactly making that abundantly clear in the advertising.
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No different from when Autodesk moved AutoCAD and maya moved over to a subscription based model, all MS knows is that steady income makes stock holders happy. It also reduces entry cost anyways they have Office 2013 if you don't want the subscription so it's not like they are forcing people into it.
 
Software subscription models are nothing new. It would be nice if after a time, say a year or two of subscribing that you get to keep your existing version in perpetuity.
 
You're missing the point. Dumb end users see the pricepoint or see that Office365 is a higher number than Office2013 and buy in, unaware they'll lose access to their files if they don't keep paying every year forever.

Nobody said offering subscription based software is wrong or evil, rather its the usual way Microsoft goes about marketing the thing that's turning people off and leading to bad press because the gotchas aren't upfront and are having to be pulled out of MS reps like pulling teeth,
 
When did 365 become greater then 2013? And I think most people understand that the notion of paying a subscription fee forever to keep a service. Netflix, phones, cable, Spotify, power, etc. don't keep working if you don't pay the bill unfortunately.
 
Is Microsoft *trying* to lose their market???

First, Windows 8 isn't exactly setting the woods on fire -- and no one can say that it is not a polarizing product to say the least (i.e. regardless of whether they love it or hate it, most people opinions on it are quite strong).

Office365 University is actually a good deal...but the other products???

$99 *per year* for 5 devices is a bit steep for most average home users and is really a vast price increase.

Previously, the 3 PC version of Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Student was $149 (list) but was available discounted to $125 pretty much continuously (Amazon, Newegg, etc.). Additionally, this was a ONE TIME fee and most households typically purchase a new copy of Office about as often as they purchase a new PC (and often, every two PC's). Basically, many home users who had Office 2003 skipped 2007 and have only recently upgraded to 2010 (and I know a lot who are still using 2003 and probably will continue to until h*ll freezes over due to intense loathing of the Ribbon UI).

With Office 2013, the 3 PC option for Home & Student goes away -- and they jacked up the price of the single PC version from $119 list ($100 typical on Amazon, etc) to $139 list.

So, your cost to license 3 PC's for home goes from a one time cost of $125 every 5-6 years (or more -- honestly, the improvements from 2007-2010-2013 aren't worth the cost of the upgrade -- 2003 to 2007/2010 was worth it, if you could stomach the ribbon, but only because of the lack of true support for the .docx, etc. file formats).

Additionally, the number of homes that need more than 3 licenses for Office are probably fairly small. About the only benefit is if one of the PC's is a Mac (and this "benefit" is Microsoft sort of cutting off the nose of the Windows division to spite their own face -- it only helps the Mac and hurts Windows 8) or if you are planning to run it on a Windows RT tablet. That said, I've tried Office 2013 on a Windows 8 tablet -- ick. It still isn't all that good. Most of the third party Office Suites for Android are MUCH better from a usability standpoint (albeit less full featured and feature rich -- but, seriously, a tablet is rarely your primary entry device for Office type applications).

So, before, worst case, you had to buy 2 copies of Office 2010 Home & Student for $125/ea -- i.e. $250 -- to cover 5 devices (with one license left over). If you typically update Office every 5 years, this works out to $50 annually. If you you wait longer than 5 years or have fewer devices, the effective cost is even less. With Office 365 you are shelling out $100 EVERY YEAR. In other words, the cost has gone from $125-$250 to $500. That is totally NUTS in this economy.

The only pluses I see are that you also get Outlook (which most home users don't care about), Publisher (which almost NO ONE, home or business, EVER uses), and Access (which most home users have never even heard of). Oh, you also get 20Gb of additional storage space on SkyDrive -- for the account, shared between 5 users/devices. If each of the 5 users just signs up for a separate SkyDrive account, then you get 35Gb of total storage space anyway (7Gb * 5) and most users I know don't WANT their data shared with other family members anyway.

Office365 for larger business has some benefits -- basically it's Software Assurance on steroids -- and the ability to expand on contract the number of licensed subscriptions on an annual basis as employees come and go is a major benefit, as are the hosted Outlook e-mail and some of the sharing and conferencing features.

That said, the fact that Office365 is "always up-to-date with latest new features and services released regularly" strikes terror into the hearts of many of us in the IT support crowd -- specifically, we don't want new features or updates to be installed EVER unless we have already evaluated them, gotten ready for them, and planned for any training requirements needed. Basically, the business upgrade cycle often makes the home user upgrade cycle look aggressive -- I still know of several businesses on SA that have yet to upgrade from Office 2003 (of which two are finally planning to migrate to Office 2010 this year, with an intent to stay on it for a minimum of 5 years).

About the only people who will truly benefit from the subscription model will be Microsoft's stock holders -- *IF* it works and doesn't send people running in droves to other platforms even faster than they already are.

Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion that this is only going to hasten Microsoft's demise, rather than helping them.
 
Steve said:
all for US$99.99 for an annual subscription, the equivalent of US$8.34 per month.
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$8.3325/m which rounds to $8.33! :p

It's a terrible deal when you consider this version adds nothing over 2010 other than being so ugly and so glaringly white youll need $580 of laser eye sugery (per eye).
 
mdburkey said:
Is Microsoft *trying* to lose their market???

First, Windows 8 isn't exactly setting the woods on fire -- and no one can say that it is not a polarizing product to say the least (i.e. regardless of whether they love it or hate it, most people opinions on it are quite strong).

Office365 University is actually a good deal...but the other products???

$99 *per year* for 5 devices is a bit steep for most average home users and is really a vast price increase.

Previously, the 3 PC version of Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Student was $149 (list) but was available discounted to $125 pretty much continuously (Amazon, Newegg, etc.). Additionally, this was a ONE TIME fee and most households typically purchase a new copy of Office about as often as they purchase a new PC (and often, every two PC's). Basically, many home users who had Office 2003 skipped 2007 and have only recently upgraded to 2010 (and I know a lot who are still using 2003 and probably will continue to until h*ll freezes over due to intense loathing of the Ribbon UI).

With Office 2013, the 3 PC option for Home & Student goes away -- and they jacked up the price of the single PC version from $119 list ($100 typical on Amazon, etc) to $139 list.

So, your cost to license 3 PC's for home goes from a one time cost of $125 every 5-6 years (or more -- honestly, the improvements from 2007-2010-2013 aren't worth the cost of the upgrade -- 2003 to 2007/2010 was worth it, if you could stomach the ribbon, but only because of the lack of true support for the .docx, etc. file formats).

Additionally, the number of homes that need more than 3 licenses for Office are probably fairly small. About the only benefit is if one of the PC's is a Mac (and this "benefit" is Microsoft sort of cutting off the nose of the Windows division to spite their own face -- it only helps the Mac and hurts Windows 8) or if you are planning to run it on a Windows RT tablet. That said, I've tried Office 2013 on a Windows 8 tablet -- ick. It still isn't all that good. Most of the third party Office Suites for Android are MUCH better from a usability standpoint (albeit less full featured and feature rich -- but, seriously, a tablet is rarely your primary entry device for Office type applications).

So, before, worst case, you had to buy 2 copies of Office 2010 Home & Student for $125/ea -- i.e. $250 -- to cover 5 devices (with one license left over). If you typically update Office every 5 years, this works out to $50 annually. If you you wait longer than 5 years or have fewer devices, the effective cost is even less. With Office 365 you are shelling out $100 EVERY YEAR. In other words, the cost has gone from $125-$250 to $500. That is totally NUTS in this economy.

The only pluses I see are that you also get Outlook (which most home users don't care about), Publisher (which almost NO ONE, home or business, EVER uses), and Access (which most home users have never even heard of). Oh, you also get 20Gb of additional storage space on SkyDrive -- for the account, shared between 5 users/devices. If each of the 5 users just signs up for a separate SkyDrive account, then you get 35Gb of total storage space anyway (7Gb * 5) and most users I know don't WANT their data shared with other family members anyway.

Office365 for larger business has some benefits -- basically it's Software Assurance on steroids -- and the ability to expand on contract the number of licensed subscriptions on an annual basis as employees come and go is a major benefit, as are the hosted Outlook e-mail and some of the sharing and conferencing features.

That said, the fact that Office365 is "always up-to-date with latest new features and services released regularly" strikes terror into the hearts of many of us in the IT support crowd -- specifically, we don't want new features or updates to be installed EVER unless we have already evaluated them, gotten ready for them, and planned for any training requirements needed. Basically, the business upgrade cycle often makes the home user upgrade cycle look aggressive -- I still know of several businesses on SA that have yet to upgrade from Office 2003 (of which two are finally planning to migrate to Office 2010 this year, with an intent to stay on it for a minimum of 5 years).

About the only people who will truly benefit from the subscription model will be Microsoft's stock holders -- *IF* it works and doesn't send people running in droves to other platforms even faster than they already are.

Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion that this is only going to hasten Microsoft's demise, rather than helping them.
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You would think this but the problem with the only other viable platform other than windows is a Platform the majority of us can't afford or want to goto. I don't want to get stuck with a iMac instead of a Desktop. I also don't want to pay 3k for a Desktop that is worth $1000.00 nor do I want to pay $900.00 for a laptop that is worth $600.00 or less. Basically what this new Office push is going to do though is start making businesses dump Microsoft Office and goto a free solution, Google Docs, OpenOffice.Org. I don't know what Microsoft is even thinking with Office365 while I love the whole printing straight off your cloud storage locations and being able to open all PDF's with Word and edit and print them is nice as well, I don't like the subscription price at all.

As far as Windows 8 goes, I installed a start menu on my own. Pretty much anyone can as all you have to do is download a free or almost free app to get the start menu back in 8 instead of the stupid Tile Menu. Older folks though are more than likely never going to figure it out unless they are familiar with PC's and some other folks who are really bad with PC's aren't going to figure that out on there own either. I installed Classic Shell on a older retired gentleman's computer today and he thought it was miraculous and now no longer despises Windows 8. Why the hell Microsoft didn't give that option to begin with imo is absolutely stupid and whoever on there team decided that only one style of menu was a brilliant ideal should honestly be fired.
 
odditory said:
You're missing the point. Dumb end users see the pricepoint or see that Office365 is a higher number than Office2013 and buy in, unaware they'll lose access to their files if they don't keep paying every year forever.

Nobody said offering subscription based software is wrong or evil, rather its the usual way Microsoft goes about marketing the thing that's turning people off and leading to bad press because the gotchas aren't upfront and are having to be pulled out of MS reps like pulling teeth,
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I think you are either FUD'ing or a troll. You can always just download your files off your skydrive (which you don't have to use...hint, your being intentionally deceiving here. Furthermore, MS just won't nuke your files if you stop paying. You think they would be that stupid to do that? Could you imagine the lawsuits. Seriously. The amount of FUD on this around the world is immense.

$100/year for 5 machines is not obscene...it isn't even expensive. If it is...go use open office. Furthermore this is full office, not a limited pack of word/excel/powerpoint, You can also now generate and edit PDF's within the tool. And the biggest thing at pisses me off is it isn't "cloud only". You download and run it.

Bit I will concede ONE point, it doesn't make sense if you only have one PC. In that case, MS even STATES that if you are a single user that just buying 2013 is a good idea. So take your heatlessun equiavlanet bashing and go elseswhere. :D
 
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