Microsoft planned to offer Office as a subscription service
for consumers for $100 a year, "Office 365 Home Premium" customers
can put Office on up to five computers including Apple's Macintosh and Windows
8 tablets and store up to 27 gigabytes of data on Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud
storage service. Microsoft said it is targeting Office 365 at families with
multiple computers, including laptops and tablets.
The subscription includes frequent software updates and
allows users to automatically load their customized Microsoft Office settings
on each different device. Unlike Office 365, the Office 2013 software won't
receive regular updates.
Whether or not that device has the program installed, Office
365 users will also be able to get "Office on Demand", a feature that
allows them to temporarily access the latest version of Office on any computer
through a Web browser . But once you stop paying, you lose the software.
Microsoft will still sell Office the traditional way too.
The bigger question is whether changing the Office business model is worth it
for Microsoft. Microsoft's hope is that subscription pricing will create a
predictable, fixed sales stream it can count on every year.
Office 2013 is priced at $140 for the basic version and costs
$220 if you want Outlook and $400 if you want Access and Publisher and a $20
increase over Microsoft Office 2010, for the first time since 2001 the price
tag is going up.
Jevon Fark said "The lines between work and home are blurring;
People want a seamless experience across all their devices”.
But the emerging trend, threatening Microsoft Office and one
Microsoft doesn't like to talk about is people aren't replacing older PCs and
they rely on tablets for their daily computing needs. Office, which is not yet
available on the iOS, is getting replaced by free alternatives like Google Drive.
That means a growing number of Office customers are staying with the same
version for five, six or even seven years, according to Laura DiDio, principal
analyst of consultancy ITIC. DiDio said "They have to continue to drive
annual revenue, that means changing with the times and it’s no secret that
Microsoft is under attack from Google".
