Microsoft launches $70/year Office 365 Personal for Mac, iPad

Posted:
in iPad edited April 2014
Pricing on Microsoft's Office 365 service became a little more affordable for individual users on Tuesday, as the company launched a new "Personal" subscription plan priced at $69.99 per year.




The new Office 365 Personal subscription includes access to the service through one Mac or PC, as well as one tablet, including Apple's iPad. Previously, the cheapest option was Office 365 Home, which is priced at $99.99 per year with a one-year commitment.

While the Home plan, which still remains, includes access on 5 Macs or PCs and 5 tablets, the new Personal subscription is limited to one of each. Both plans come with smartphone access, and the ability to access the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

The new Office 365 Personal plan also comes with offline storage, 27 gigabytes of online storage for one user, and 60 world minutes of calling per month to 60+ countries with Skype.



For those who don't want to commit to a full year, Office 365 Personal access can also be purchased for $6.99 per month, while the Home plan runs $9.99 per month.

Microsoft's industry leading Office suite debuted on Apple's iPad late last month. Word, Excel and PowerPoint are all free-to-download applications that come with the ability to view documents, while editing and saving requires a subscription to the Office 365 service.

Users can even subscribe to Office 365 through the official iPad applications, granting Apple its traditional 30 percent cut of all in-app and App Store purchases.

Downloads of Office for iPad hit 12 million units in the suite's first week of availability. The applications go head-to-head with Apple's own Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iOS.

As for the Mac, Microsoft has signaled that it is planning to release a new version for Apple's OS X platform later this year. The suite was last updated on the Mac in 2010, and subsequent updates have not arrived because Microsoft disbanded its Mac business unit soon after it launched.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 54
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    I’ve got Office 2011 on my Mac. I’ve got Office on my iPad. I’ve got a One Drive account with 7GB free storage. Now comes the hard part. Do I take the last step and pluck down my $70?
  • Reply 2 of 54

    So if $100 per year, every year, forever, for 5 computers and 5 iPads is too much, then $70 per year, every year, forever, for just 1 computer and 1 iPad is is reasonable?

     

    Right.

  • Reply 3 of 54
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member

    More agressive, very good move. Only $70 to go.

     

     

     

    Is that $83.88 per year?

  • Reply 4 of 54
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    error posting
  • Reply 5 of 54
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    Nope. Still not going to pay a subscription to use software. To anyone. Ever.
  • Reply 6 of 54
    brlawyerbrlawyer Posts: 828member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by lkrupp View Post



    I’ve got Office 2011 on my Mac. I’ve got Office on my iPad. I’ve got a One Drive account with 7GB free storage. Now comes the hard part. Do I take the last step and pluck down my $70?

     

    The answer is no.

  • Reply 7 of 54
    brlawyerbrlawyer Posts: 828member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dysamoria View Post



    Nope. Still not going to pay a subscription to use software. To anyone. Ever.

     

    Same here. That business model is ridiculous.

  • Reply 8 of 54
    seankillseankill Posts: 566member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by brlawyer View Post

     

     

    Same here. That business model is ridiculous.


    Ridiculous for the consumers, not so much for a company looks for tons of money. I agree though, will be keeping my Office 2010 for as long as possible.

  • Reply 9 of 54
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member

    Office 2010 for my Windows systems, and Office 2011 on my iMac.  Zero monthly subscription fee.



    While this (arguably) makes sense for businesses to keep their software current, for the personal consumer, I think it is borderline extortion that Microsoft thinks it's okay to charge a subscription fee to use something so essential as an office productivity suite.



    All they're going to do is lose customers to companies (like Apple) that offer a paid to own model.



    Lame.

  • Reply 10 of 54
    brlawyerbrlawyer Posts: 828member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Seankill View Post

     

    Ridiculous for the consumers, not so much for a company looks for tons of money. I agree though, will be keeping my Office 2010 for as long as possible.


     

    Of course I mean consumers - unfortunately, there are loads of benighted people out there willing to pay big money for a time-limited subscription...

  • Reply 11 of 54
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    seankill wrote: »
    brlawyer wrote: »
     

    Same here. That business model is ridiculous.
    Ridiculous for the consumers, not so much for a company looks for tons of money. I agree though, will be keeping my Office 2010 for as long as possible.

    I fully agree. This lower price won't suddenly make the offer more attractive, and business purchases will continue, at whatever price. Well, at least large ones. I cannot believe MS thinks this will entice any consumer. Haven't even read the article, but I presume there's a refund for those who already bought the subscription at $99(?)
  • Reply 12 of 54

    Subscription software will make it essentially impossible for archivists and librarians, in 30 years, to read the files and archives created today. Because access to the software will be gone. Possibly even the company that previously sold subscriptions to it will be gone. Does Microsoft even acknowledge today that it once made a CP/M card for the Apple ][e?  They did, because I bought and still own one.  But that's hardware.  Suppose Deneba Systems had only sold it's monumental, game-changing graphics software CANVAS as a subscription. Many of us would be stuck: the company is gone, the new owner of the IP refuses to even offer the program for the Mac platform (where it was born). This is one reason some of us keep our PowerPC Macs and sometimes even run System 9 (an OS X upgrade was available but is very buggy).  Had this been subscription software, I'd have no access to my legacy graphics files.

     

    So, I will write as dysamoria wrote: "Nope. Still not going to pay a subscription to use software. To anyone. Ever."

  • Reply 13 of 54
    brlawyerbrlawyer Posts: 828member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TeaEarleGreyHot View Post

     

    Subscription software will make it essentially impossible for archivists and librarians, in 30 years, to read the files and archives created today. Because access to the software will be gone. Possibly even the company that previously sold subscriptions to it will be gone. Does Microsoft even acknowledge today that it once made a CP/M card for the Apple ][e?  They did, because I bought and still own one.  But that's hardware.  Suppose Deneba Systems had only sold it's monumental, game-changing graphics software CANVAS as a subscription. Many of us would be stuck: the company is gone, the new owner of the IP refuses to even offer the program for the Mac platform (where it was born). This is one reason some of us keep our PowerPC Macs and sometimes even run System 9 (an OS X upgrade was available but is very buggy).  Had this been subscription software, I'd have no access to my legacy graphics files.

     

    So, I will write as dysamoria wrote: "Nope. Still not going to pay a subscription to use software. To anyone. Ever."


     

    Exactly right. The subscription-based model is absolutely useless considering that software is always licensed, not sold - and that editing/reading capabilities will no longer be there once the company is gone.

  • Reply 14 of 54
    I am still not interested. iWork is a good and free alternative which I am familiar with. The subscription model is still a very bad idea, I already have a lot of subscriptions and I don't need more.
  • Reply 15 of 54
    davesmalldavesmall Posts: 118member
    I dumped office and switched to Apple iWork apps several years ago. I can't recall a single instance where I had to go back to Office 2011 to edit or create a document. Apple's apps are so much more intuitive and easier to use.

    My problem with MS Office has been that it gives life to the term Bloatware. For many years, Microsoft needed justification to sell those hundred dollar software upgrades every year or two. Their justification was always to add more features. What started out as a nifty little sports car evolved into a passenger sedan, then a station wagon, then a van, then a bus, and finally a tandem-axle cross country truck.

    Those apps are loaded with features I never used, didn't understand, and simply added confusion (Think arrays, macros, table of contents, etc.). I'm sure there are some folks who actually use some of that stuff but it wouldn't be me.

    Now they've somehow managed to make what was already a very bad deal even worse by converting to a subscription plan. This means they'll have their hand in your pocket all the time rather than just some of the time. No thanks, I'll continue to opt out.

    The sad thing is that many (most?) Windows users actually seem to think Office is somehow desirable. They send me documents in Office formats all the time. I simply drag and drop them onto the corresponding Apple App and they open fine. If I modify or create a document in one of Apple's apps, it is very easy to export to an Office format for sending to a Windows user.

    My Mac apps already automatically sync to my iPad.

    I don't see any value in Microsoft's offer here.
  • Reply 16 of 54
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    Excellent.
    Vedy good for enterprise users.
  • Reply 17 of 54
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member

    Quote:



    Originally Posted by TeaEarleGreyHot View Post

     

    Subscription software will make it essentially impossible for archivists and librarians, in 30 years, to read the files and archives created today. Because access to the software will be gone. Possibly even the company that previously sold subscriptions to it will be gone. Does Microsoft even acknowledge today that it once made a CP/M card for the Apple ][e?  They did, because I bought and still own one.  But that's hardware.  Suppose Deneba Systems had only sold it's monumental, game-changing graphics software CANVAS as a subscription. Many of us would be stuck: the company is gone, the new owner of the IP refuses to even offer the program for the Mac platform (where it was born). This is one reason some of us keep our PowerPC Macs and sometimes even run System 9 (an OS X upgrade was available but is very buggy).  Had this been subscription software, I'd have no access to my legacy graphics files.

     

    So, I will write as dysamoria wrote: "Nope. Still not going to pay a subscription to use software. To anyone. Ever."

     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by brlawyer View Post

     

    Exactly right. The subscription-based model is absolutely useless considering that software is always licensed, not sold - and that editing/reading capabilities will no longer be there once the company is gone.


     

    Not a big deal.

     

    Microsoft sells Office 2013 suites, which are the traditional one-time, non-subscription purchases. If you have the system to run the applications, there is no requirement to connect to some sort of active licensing server.

     

    As long as Microsoft continues to sell standalone office suites, your handwringing is pointless.

     

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pazuzu View Post



    Excellent.

    Vedy good for enterprise users.


     

    No, it's pretty irrelevant to enterprise users. Corporations purchase multiple licenses for their employees. This new offering is geared to individual users as it only activates the software for one Mac and one iPad.

  • Reply 18 of 54
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mpantone View Post

     

    As long as Microsoft continues to sell standalone office suites, your handwringing is pointless.


     

    Not handwringing.  Experience.  With other companies & products.

     

     

    Your tautological argument is pointless.

  • Reply 19 of 54
    customtbcustomtb Posts: 346member
    Throw in a $100 iTunes gift card every year and I'm in!
  • Reply 20 of 54
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member

    So how does MS determine the difference between a real personal use verse the BYOD to work and using it for actual corporate work. Today more people use a personal ipad at work than a work supplied device.

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