back to article Microsoft tries to sell home Office users on subscription pricing

Microsoft has unveiled its first attempt to seduce consumers into paying subscription pricing for its Office 365 package. For $99.99 a year, buyers get the Office 365 Home Premium, which gives them a license to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access applications on five computers in the home. …

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  1. Daniel Warner

    UK users?

    No doubt that will be 'converted' to £99.

    1. qwarty
      FAIL

      Re: UK users?

      The UK price is £79.99 per year including VAT. Presumably the reg missed out that fact to catch you out with that £99 presume!

      1. Steve Todd

        Re: UK users?

        Which is almost exactly what it costs for a perpetual license for Office for home users. I doubt there's enough interest in the extra bits from home users to sell many subscriptions at that rate.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: UK users?

          "I doubt there's enough interest in the extra bits from home users to sell many subscriptions at that rate."

          Which is a missed opportunity. Had they bundled something like 100GB of cloud storage then I'd be in there. Probably other things would appeal to other users, but looks like they're spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar.

        2. Chris 155
          FAIL

          Re: UK users?

          The extra bit is outlook, publisher, and access plus the skype calls and 5 licenses instead of the current 2010 3.

          YMMV as to whether that's worth it for you, but around here(Oz), the price difference between Office Home and Office with Outlook is about $100 retail rate and you only get one license when you add outlook rather than 3 without it. The price with the other two products is even higher.

          I'm not saying the price is worth it. Most home users don't need access or publisher and unless you've got an exchange server to hook it up to outlook is largely surplus to requirements. Five licenses instead of three is nice, though we won't really know whether home and student will end up with five for 2013 or not. If you need those extra things though and you plan on upgrading your office and you make skype phone calls, even the UK price is a steal.

          1. TeeCee Gold badge
            Meh

            Re: UK users?

            Most home users don't need........publisher

            In certain places, MS Publisher is pretty much de rigeur for school projects as it's simple to use and produces good results. I'd love to use the OO equivalent, but there isn't one.

            Investigations into open-source alternatives have revealed that these fall into two categories. Either a full blown DTP package, which is waaaaay OTT for what's required and has a learning curve like the north face of the Eiger, or something simple but incompatible and shit.

            Thus for the kids' homework, MS Office is a "must have". Something fairly compatible isn't good enough, as the transition between using Publisher at school and whatever-it-is at home has to be seamless, so the UI needs to be near as dammit identical.

      2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

        Re: UK users?

        Yeah, they recently switched to Euro currency pricing including in the UK - which some people got upset about on various sides of the deal. So now $1 of software indeed costs €1 in the EU. It used to be $1 = £1 way way back, so this is kind of better.

        I think that remote desktop is explicitly ruled out for application sharing in the Windows licence I read last (Win 7), and elsewhere. VNC is probably illegal on Windows as well.

    2. TheVogon

      Re: UK users?

      lol @ "open source office suites such as OpenOffice, and latterly LibreOffice, are proving so popular in Europe at the moment" - very funny joke.

    3. Nick Ryan Silver badge
      Stop

      Greedy bastards

      Are MS trying to kill their joke of a subscription model even before it starts?

      £80 per year for a bloated, hard to use (thanks to TIFKAM influence) office suite containing a massive amount of crud that no sane home user is ever likely to want to use? Fine, it can be installed on up to five systems, but how many home users really care about that? To save money most are willing to have it on one or two system and leave the others as they are.

      As a generalisation, home users don't care about Outlook, most use webmail these days as online mail services integrate well with mobile phones, attempting to use Outlook effectively ties you to MS mail services of some description. Publisher? Sane professionals don't use it, home users get by with Word. Next they'll be flogging powerpoint to home users... The home users that may want to use much of this software tend to want to use it for business purposes, which if you check the licence terms on this service is prohibited - it's for home, personal use only.

      Now if MS were to provide something like a subscription service for just MS Word at £15 per year for home use only then they'd have a massive uptake. Unfortunately the greed has set in and they're more interested in foisting the rest of the MS Office suite at users and trying to get them locked into proprietary non interoperable software packages and systems than providing a good value service for end users.

  2. Oninoshiko

    You know, as a home user, I think this would make me look for alternatives. It's worth noting that home users are generally not as demanding as business users (when was the last time you saw home user with a marginally complex Excel doc?).

    100 USD a year is just too much for what they are offering, which is to say a suite of tools which only gets used 5 times a year or so (for the average home user). If they want users to move to a subscription model (which they DESPERATELY need, as they are starting to have difficulties coming up with new improvements), then they need to get this into the cheap enough to not even be worth thinking about it range. I'd put that at 20 USD a year.

    (YMMV)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      £16 year per system is no huge deal for those of us who are employed, but yeah if you live alone or own 6 devices doesn't work all that well.

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    3. Anonymous Coward
      Windows

      @Oninoshiko

      Agreed.

      This is one of those situations where MS Office isn't the best choice IMO. In fact; although it may sound very cost effective at first you'll effectively end up paying (much) more in the longer run while you actually get a lot less functionality, esp. in comparison to other solutions.

      Because if you keep that subscription for 2 years you're already paying much more than a single copy of the desktop version. And although the license of that desktop version doesn't allow multiple installations one could ask him- herself how many times it would happen when everyone will be working with Office at exactly the same time? Quite possibly the license could be shared.

      But most of all; in comparison to the online variants of MS Office I think its safe to say that both LibreOffice as well as OpenOffice can featurewise blow it out of the water so to speak. For no additional costs at all.

      I'd say people are actually better off with the open source variants in this scenario. Because if, for whatever reason, you do run into a situation where some of the more advantaged features could come in handy then you're pretty much screwed with Office 365. Its quite a decent product, but by far comparable to a desktop version featurewise. The open source variants otoh. do provide all you might need as a home users, even more, and for a lot less money too.

      With plans like these I don't see Microsoft coming out on top. Too expensive while providing too little features.

    4. P. Lee

      > I'd put that at 20 USD a year.

      Which is why the VLA "use at home" deal is around $15

    5. JEDIDIAH
      Linux

      Arrogant and Insane...

      Expecting people to spend $100 per year on a problem that was already solved 20 years ago? Really?

      For most people it should be $50 and done, period.

      Most people simply don't need Word Perfect style overkill. The only reason this is even remotely an issue is the perception that you need to be compatible and even that is being eroded by tablets.

      1. Nuke
        Holmes

        @ JEDIDIAH - Re: Arrogant and Insane...

        Wrote :- "Most people simply don't need Word Perfect style overkill. "

        And if I did I still have my old copy of WordPerfect and could get it to run too. I would have thought that nearly everyone with a PC has had a workable word processor at some time, enough for their needs. What do people do with this software - has it all rotted away?

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      "For $99.99 a year, buyers get the Office 365 Home Premium, which gives them a license to use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access applications on five computers in the home. Subscribers also get 20GB of space on Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud storage system and 60 minutes worth of free Skype calls per month."

      "If no payment is forthcoming, they will only be able to access their documents in read-only mode or via a printer"

      My answer to this is to tell them to shove it up their arse, use Libre Office, and keep it all on your own hard drives.

      "The biggest financial losers are those who purchase the Office Professional package. The $399.99 price tag converts to £254.1 or €296.64 at current rates, but the British will pay £389.99 and European counterparts get stung for €539.

      It's not hard to see why open source office suites such as OpenOffice, and latterly LibreOffice, are proving so popular in Europe at the moment. US companies like Microsoft and Apple traditionally cite the higher costs of doing business across the pond as the reason for the price differential, but it's difficult to see how such high margins can be justified – in this hack's opinion, at least."

      Microsoft = Gouge, Gouge, Gouge....... = Fuck them. Ripping you off = fucking them off.

      and..........

      "If they want users to move to a subscription model (which they DESPERATELY need, as they are starting to have difficulties coming up with new improvements), "

      Improvements?

      How do you top stupidity and grafting?

      I know, lets change the packaging from 2013, to 2014 and double the prices!!!!

      Smiley Face = Microsoft's best efforts sent me into the loving arms of Linux.

  3. Justice
    Facepalm

    Best advertisment ever...

    ... for switching over to Open Office.

    1. Hephaestus42

      Re: Best advertisment ever...

      I will do you one better.

      Open office with the MultiCloud File Manager. This way you can store your files on any cloud service or locally. Google Drive anyone?

      http://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/MultiCloud

  4. adnim
    Meh

    They can charge

    what they like, makes no odds to me. I just hope it supports ODF or earlier versions of Office file formats else wise all those people who use MS Office are not going to be able to open any documents I send to them.

    Still that's their problem, just like opening proprietary standard documents in OO is my problem.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: They can charge

      Give us one good reason why they would want to open any documents you send.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Stop

        @HolyFreakinGhost

        "And with that attitude professionally you'll soon never have to send anyone a document again!"

        You're right there, but for completely different reasons than you may realize. I think the OP makes a perfect argument, and lets not forget that we're talking about home usage here, NOT business use.

        But about that sending... A few months ago a friend of mine setup a list of stuff (todo list) for me and a couple of other people. Basically the idea to 'share' some sort of knowledge base. Needless to say; in daily (work) life he's using MS Office but at home its all LibreOffice for him.

        He didn't sent us any format at all; he sent us the URL of a text document which he put online using the Google tools. I clicked, and could view and edit. Even though I don't have a Google account (nor have any desire to get one).

        To some extend you can always accomplish the same using SkyDrive (though I'm not 100% sure about that anymore considering the major changes MS made in this field recently).

        My point: with the OP's attitude he doesn't even HAVE to send documents around. IMVHO.

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  5. Enrico Vanni
    WTF?

    Crazy Prices. Considering anyone who can take advantage of the Home User Program can get their own copy of Office 2013 for £8.95 this is just nuts.

    The next step in this shift to a subscription business model is to phase out the boxed/download product, which will make the free Office alternatives the only choice for people with more sense than money.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "anyone who can take advantage of the Home User Program can get their own copy of Office 2013 for £8.95 "

      I think MS have noticed. My 80,000 employee organisation has withdrawn from the home user programme because they don't want to pay the costs (not disclosed) that are made for that. At a guess MS are ramping the HUP costs for business up in the hope of forcing home users onto a subscription.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The costs to your organisation of that are zero if it maintains an ELA for your other Microsoft software........

    2. spidetfry

      In my experience most home users take advantage of the `family friend who works in IT` to get their Office software, this is gonna go down like a lead balloon!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "It's a source of not inconsiderable annoyance to many at Microsoft that home users typically buy one version of Office and then never upgrade it. After all, if all you want to do is write documents, do a very occasional PowerPoint or read an Excel spreadsheet from work then you really don’t need the latest all-singing, all-dancing version of Office."

    "It's a source of not inconsiderable annoyance to many home users who typically buy one version of Office and then never upgrade it that Microsoft won't leave them alone, but drags them kicking into new, superior formats, newer, breakthrough ribbons, and other CRAP they neither need or even want.

    100 bucks a year, whooaaa! 5 computers at home, all those eager beavers, dad, mom, their sprog, all sweating away at their desks. Is it a bargain or is it a bargain :(

  7. 1Rafayal

    I switched to OpenOffice years ago.

    I just dont need the full MS suite on my home machine, the only time I need it is for work who happily gives me the oldest possible version.

    The 60 minutes of Skype calls is interesting, but for that amount of money, you would expect more than 12 hours of free calls per year...

  8. Christian Berger

    Seriously home users still using Microsoft Office...

    ...also won't care when they are charged once per year and probably facing the prospect of Office 365 being canceled eventually, leaving them with a huge emigration problem.

    If they did care about that, they wouldn't be considering Microsoft Office in the first place. They probably wouldn't be considering office products at all.

  9. Darryl

    No thanks. I'll buy a good old fashioned offline version on DVD and use it for the next 5 or more years without having to fork out every year.

    I have Office 2003 at home and know a lot of people who are using Office 2000 and even '97 quite happily.

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      1. Denarius
        Meh

        Re: Office XP here

        @HolyFreaking whatever. Usable ? You're kidding. Best argument I have for OpenOffice and forks is that it works like software used for years. Users don't have to learn a different interface. The pain of going from office2003 to the horror of office 2010 put me off using any new application M$ offer at any price. It is annoying when document layouts are not correct, especially in tables, but there is a licenced PC running office97 around here for checking before sending if it matters.

        IMHO, M$ have made it much easier for users to stick with the old versions, use converters or use something else.

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    2. Not_The_Droids

      My wife has been happily using Office '97 for many years (still using it today). While Powerpoint feels a bit long in the tooth, and she doesn't use Access or Excel, Word 97 does all she needs to do - unless she needs to open a .docx or convert to PDF, and then she'll lean on conversion programs.

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        1. Christian Berger

          What people tend to forget

          Is that software used to crash a lot more back then. For example the German version of Word used to crash when spell-checking the word "Realitätsbezug".

  10. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Home users still pay for office software?

    http://docs.google.com Price: FREE

    http://www.openoffice.org Price: FREE

    http://www.kingsoftstore.com Price: FREE

    http://www.libreoffice.org/ Price: FREE

    http://symphony.lotus.com Price: FREE

    http://www.oxygenofficepro.com Price: FREE

    http://www.zoho.com/ Price: FREE

    Some of them might not include things like macro languages, but how many home users use that??? ALL of those are suitable for 99.999% of home users. Sorry Microsoft, like Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Xbox, Surface and Zune, you are simply out of touch...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Home users still pay for office software?

      You forgot http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/web-apps-help/get-started-with-office-web-apps-HA101785172.aspx FREE

      And that one actually works with standard documents....

      1. GregC
        Trollface

        Re: Home users still pay for office software?

        MS have added ODF support:? Fantastic :)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Stop

        Re: Home users still pay for office software?

        Standard documents, or microsoft standard documents? BIG difference.

        I have never had a problem reading any word document, regardless of the version of MS Office it was written in. I use Google Docs (now Google Drive), and it just works, and the concurrent document editing and collaboration is superb.

  11. frank ly
    Facepalm

    Wait a minute

    "...the ability to share Office documents between multiple devices and getting availability over the internet ..."

    That's what file systems, removable storage, networks, cloud storage and, er ... the internet are for. Or so i thought.

  12. Jon Press

    I'm still using Office 2000

    I must say I'm surprised and grateful that Microsoft has put so much effort into maintaining it as a viable option (including the converters for docx formats), but not so much that I'd consider shelling out for a newer version.

    Microsoft seem dazzled into paralysis by the revenues they get from Office (witness the agonising over Outlook for RT), but the days of being able to sell a mass market product with such huge margins isn't going to survive the tablet/app age.

    I don't see, either, that many people will immediately think of a software suite they've traditionally used to create paper documents as being the obvious solution to their cloud collaboration needs (assuming they have any).

    If they can't find a way of selling a consumer version of Office (or its subcomponents) at a few pounds a throw, there isn't going to be a "home" Office product line in future.

    1. N2

      Re: I'm still using Office 2000

      Yep, me as well, to be honest I cant see the point of some of the recent versions, unless getting annoyed & not achieving much are now regarded as features.

      1. Pirate Dave Silver badge
        Pirate

        Re: I'm still using Office 2000

        Same here. I didn't see anything shiny enough in 2003 to be worth the upgrade. And the ribbon in 2007 totally put me off.

      2. b166er

        Re: I'm still using Office 2000

        Well, considering you two tightwads are still using a version from 13 years ago, what choice do Microsoft have?

        What would you like them do do? Keep patching Office 2000 ad infinitum and have no money for research and development?

        I expect downvotes for this, but seriously, they gave you a decent Office product 13 years ago, it wouldn't hurt to buy a new copy would it?

        Thank fuck I'm not in the software business.

        1. GregC

          Re: I'm still using Office 2000

          "I expect downvotes for this, but seriously, they gave you a decent Office product 13 years ago, it wouldn't hurt to buy a new copy would it?"

          No downvote here, but nevertheless - if a 13 year old piece of software is still doing everything that is required of it, and most likely much faster than when it was first purchased due to hardware improvements, why would anyone even think about buying a new version (assuming there's no must-have feature in the new version, which has been the case for years as far as I can tell). In fact recent versions of Office seem to have contained actual incentives to avoid upgrades (docx by default, ribbon...)

          Not suggesting they should still be supporting 2000 now at all, but why should I be expected to 'up'grade if what I already have works just fine?

          As for this subscription model for home users - well, good luck with that one MS. I suspect you'll need it.

          1. DiBosco

            Re: I'm still using Office 2000

            More to the point, even though for power users Open Office/Libre Office might not be good enough, it staggers me how many people use a tiny fraction of Microsoft Office's functions, yet think they need it and only it. I would guess that at the very least 80% of home users would be able to use OO/LO just fine and I suspect tablets are making people realise just this in the shape of things like Google docs. So, MS trying to charge a subscription, a fecking subscription, strikes me as being utter insanity. I seriously think Microsoft are making some insane decisions at the moment.

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