Microsoft Launches 'Office 365 Personal' Plan for One Mac and One iPad at $69/Year

Tuesday April 15, 2014 10:41 am PDT by Kelly Hodgkins
Microsoft today started selling its Office 365 Personal subscription, a less expensive version of Office 365 that targets individual users. The cloud-based subscription service provides access to online versions of Microsoft's Office productivity suite, online storage in OneDrive and a block of Skype calling minutes.

office-365-personalb
The new personal option allows subscribers to connect one PC or Mac desktop computer and one tablet, including the iPad, to the online service. It will cost $69 per year or $6.99 per month. Customers who require more connections can sign up for the Office 365 Home plan, which is geared towards families with support for up to five desktops and five tablets.

The new Office 365 Personal plan is available for purchase at Office365.com. It also is available at Microsoft Stores and through Microsoft’s online and retail partners. Microsoft also offers Office 365 business plans, which are priced by the number of users and are designed for real-time, online collaboration using the Office 365 suite.

[ 320 comments ]

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
Populus
76 months ago
Ok Microsoft. Now give me the chance of purchasing a lifetime license, like in past years...

Because i'd rather pay 99-199 bucks one time, than 69 bucks every mf year.
Rating: 18 Votes
Avatar
kwokaaron
76 months ago
Still waiting for the new Office for Mac...
Rating: 16 Votes
Avatar
surfingarbo
76 months ago
Remember kids, the $69 plan includes Satya Nadella coming to your house only at Thanksgiving to help with the cooking. Whereas the $99 includes him coming at both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Rating: 13 Votes
Avatar
2457282
76 months ago
Office 365 = 69/year (best case)
Google Docs = free/year
Apple iWorks = free/year

Do they all do the same? No not 100%.

For home, personal, school stuff do they all provide enough functionality to get it done? Yes, absolutely.

For work, if you do pivot tables and VB scripting in Excel will Google or Apple work for you? No way, but you represent only 1% of the user base.

Doing all the calculations, I am very happy with iWorks at home and at work, except for around budget time, I wish I had iWorks.

FREE baby; FREEEEEEE!
Rating: 12 Votes
Avatar
Razeus
76 months ago

Already to many options...either one time payment or free of charge at all. That's what people actually want.


Please don't ever start a business with this line of thinking.

You see, business have to give what people want combined with how the business plans to stay in business - a balancing act.

But of course if MS offered this for free, they would have to data mine your documents to sell ads. And we know how you all feel about that (unless it's Apple).
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Stella
76 months ago

I wonder if that's an intervention because of the massive negative feedback their apps got in the app store due to the subscription pricing :confused:


No, this plan was announced before iPad version was released.

Anyway, a lot of the comments are from ignorant users who didn't do their research before downloading, or want everything for free, or at 99cents.
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Naimfan
76 months ago
I'm firmly in the pay once group.

This subscription stuff offers nothing to me and everything to M$.

No thank you.
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
thasan
76 months ago
really? 69? and they plan to compete it with other apps?:confused:
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Michael Goff
76 months ago

The cost is about $69 too much.


If you ever think they're going to give away Office for free, I have a bridge to sell you.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
Michael Goff
76 months ago

From an internal marketing perspective, I understand the subscription model. It gives more consistent income than does releasing a new Office version and getting random tricklings of customer adoption.

However, as people have pointed out, this subscription model ends up costing customers 2-4x as much as the purchase model, WITHOUT adding any material customer value.

The last MS Office I purchased was a $100 student version 2 1/2 years ago. I may upgrade in another 1 1/2 years. For me, the "customer value" is $25/year, not $69 or $99.

At least this bungle opens the door for Apple, Google, and Open (Libre) to improve compatibility with MS Office. Right now I am forced to use MS due to lack of compatibility reading to and from Numbers. If Apple would just patch a few holes, I could be free from MS forever.


Somehow you think:
20gb OneDrive space
60 Skype minutes per month
1 tablet and 1 traditional PC license

is only worth 25$ a year?
Rating: 5 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]