“Starting on Tuesday, Microsoft will be offering Office as a subscription service for consumers,” David Goldman reports for CNNMoney.
“For $100 a year, ‘Office 365 Home Premium’ customers can put Office on up to five computers (including Apple Macintoshes and Windows 8 tablets) and store up to 27 gigabytes of data on Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud storage service,” Goldman reports. “The subscription includes frequent software updates [to “fix” rampant security flaws – MDN Ed.] and allows users to automatically load their customized Microsoft Office settings on each different device.”
Goldman reports, “Microsoft will still sell Office the traditional way too, but for the first time since 2001, the price tag is going up. Office 2013, which hits store shelves on Tuesday, is priced at $140 for the basic version, a $20 increase over Microsoft Office 2010. The new software costs $220 if you want Outlook and $400 if you want Access and Publisher.
Unlike Office 365, the Office 2013 software won’t receive regular updates.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You don’t want Microsoft Office. Microsoft makes bloated, insecure junk.
Friends don’t let friends use Office. Whenever anyone emails you a .doc attachment, send it back unopened.
On your Mac, you want the the same productivity software you have on your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad: Pages (iOS, Mac), Numbers (iOS, Mac) and Keynote (iOS, Mac).
This way, not only will you be saving a ton of money, but your computing devices will be more secure, your productivity app output will look dramatically better, and you’ll be dealing Microsoft its death blow. What could be better?!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “WS” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
My solid experience with Apple’s Pages prompted me to get a refund on my Microsoft Office order – October 29, 2012
TrustedReviews: Apple iWork ‘09 a capable, less expensive alternative to Microsoft Office – February 19, 2009
Apple’s iWork sports impressive features, gives Microsoft Office a run for its money – February 17, 2009
CNET reviews Apple iWork ‘09: An emerging powerhouse; worthy replacement for Microsoft Office – January 30, 2009
Two words, F*%K Off!
I don’t allow MS turds into my home nor on my computer. Ballmer, you assdumb fatass fsckup, keep your dogshit.
Are you the bloke who posts meaningless offensive drivel in the comments of every YouTube video?
This my friends is the future.
Adobe now tries to push you to a monthly plan and now MS with Word rental. Once this runs it’s course then they’ll want to start charging by the document. It’s the only sustainable software model. Wait till they start only renting/leasing hardware to us.
First: Be very very careful with 365. Big Brother WILL be watching your every word and number! Read the fine print and if it does not say anything about this, all the more reason for caution!
Second: Word, because you need .doc / .docx in a business environment and you do NOT want to keep 2 copies. Excel, as said by many others, there is none better. Regardless who owns is, it is good. Outlook, because Mail sucks! There is no alternative, however sad and yes, I have moved back and forward trying to make it work. It does not…..
Outlook is utter shit. Perfect proof that Microsoft does not fix their software that has no large competitor. For a mail client to not be properly multi-threaded in 2013 is an absolute joke.
I agree Apple Mail sucks dog balls. Apple still can’t fix HTML emails to format correctly (numerous Apple forums over the years but still no fix).
Outlook for Mac has the same formatting issues too, plus it still doesn’t look like a Mac app should.
From the article-
“The lines between work and home are blurring,” said company spokesman Jevon Fark. “People want a seamless experience across all their devices.”
– Yup, that means staying away from Microsoft, for sure.
I must have misread. I thought MS was going to pay me $100 a year to use the crapalicious Office. What an eyesore.
No thanks. Google Docs work great for me.
GTFO!
Google doc are horrible! I would not give any personal info to google….. despite the fact they steal it anyway they can.
You seem to be very knowledgeable on this subject. Please, tell me how using Google Docs requires me to give Google personal information.
Oh, you mean this?
“Our highly-effective targeting can leverage demographic data, as well as unique interest and preference data that taps into user passions that are relevant for your brand.”
Demographic data… that sounds a lot like personal information! By-jove, they know my age range! Oh the horror! Whatever will I do?
By the way, that quote is from Apple’s own iAds service. Both companies do targeted advertising. It’s really not that big of a deal.
Google sucks
Yes…how DARE they offer a multi-user live document collaboration platform for free? Horrible indeed.
It comes down to Excel…can’t live without Excel and I HATE IT!
Same here. Apple REALLY needs to come out with an updated version of Numbers that is competitive to Excel’s feature set. Then I can finally be free!
OMG! WTF? I pay 30 bucks a month for the ENTIRE adobe collection, Photoshop alone is worth whatever micro$haft has in total.
Obviously MDN doesn’t use a spreadsheet for anything other than keeping recipes. In a real world business/finance environment iWorks is no more than a toy.
I used Excel since 1998, and tried iWorks’ Number in 2010. For heavy duty usage Numbers is a waste of bytes.
Hup! Wow that number was really heavy. Don’t think Numbers could have lifted that one.
What a bunch of crap!!!
It’s “iWork,” moron.
Singular, not plural.
Since you don’t even know its name, I highly doubt you ever used it.
whether someone can spell or not, excel is so much better than numbers for business/technical stuff – this just cannot be disputed. i use numbers once in a while, remember why i can’t do what i want with it, and go back to excel. and i HATE microsoft’s stuff, esp. word. but i have to use word too. the u.s. gov’t requires it use for most proposals. at least i can do presentations in keynote – powerpoint is awful.
they made me have to reenter my serial number off my DVD box that I had to go and find for about a half hour to make it work again!!!
Fsckers
at some point shorting m$ stock is going to be a very good idea i would say within 4-6 years
So when will Apple finally come up with a new version of iWork?
Not a terrible price… I wish docs could be software-agnostic but that’s just not current reality for many. iWork and LibreOffice aren’t terrible, but they’re also not the de facto standard. Certainly, iWork’s Numbers and, to a lesser extent, Pages, must mature. One day we’ll get there, but for now this is an important offering. What really torque’s me is that I don’t buy new MS products for new features but to get already baked-in security fixes for the last product I bought (which itself was to get security fixes…). What a business model…
Considering that the XBox Family Plan for 4 account and XBox Gold is $99/year. That’s $25/account/year.
Then consider that Office at $100/year 5 systems or $20/year, for a premium product.
It’s not out of line. No it’s not free. Are there better and free stuff? Yes and No
However I think, based on what they charge, it’s rather reasonable.
For education, a perpetual pro license is $54.
For 5 licenses, over 3 years (the time between upgrades) You spend $300. Based on educational pricing, 5 systems is $270. Therefor, you are getting MS Office, or the non AD/Exchange parts, for about the same price as education, over the same time period.
Keep it up and get the new version every time an upgrade is available, you maintain your value.
Microsoft Office will no longer receive regular updates? Ummm…. So they made Office less secure and then offers a leasing plan to correct the problem they created? What?
I moved to Pages many years ago and use pages on my iOS devices as well. No need for silly Microsoft.
I use Open Office http://www.openoffice.org whenever possible as a substitute suite. Some people don’t want to buy iWork, and others just THINK they need MS Turd, So when the Mac apps aren’t what the client wants I install Open Office. I usually don’t hear any complaints after that. A few do finally buy iWork.
I do understand the above point greggthurman made, but that’s the exception. I do think Apple should beef Numbers up and they might have a viable challenger to the M-Sloth’s crap.
I am stuck using M-Sloth Excel at work because we use an ancient process with Macro’s in it and it won’t transfer to Numbers or to Open Office. But at home no M-Sloth is installed in any of my Macs, even though I can get it for free from work.
So they are saying Microsoft wants to charge their users $100 per year to get security fixes for the security issues they put into their code? Sounds like a typical Microsoft business model to me.
Perfectly stated.
And if you buy the software the traditional way, not only do you pay more upfront — your on your own pal — when it comes to updates. Now that’s an incentive to bring in new customers. 😉
It’s comical that MDN is equating Numbers to Excel. Sorry, but Excel takes a giant crap all over Numbers in so many ways.
Apple would be wise to beef up their productivity software (specifically Numbers) to get more people to switch away from Office. Right now, it doesn’t make sense for many.
They can whistle Dixie as far as I’m concerned. I run a business and am the treasurer for a bowling league and iWork works just fine for me. Of course, if I really had to share documents with other people outside of my company, I’d probably be whistling a different tune, but I don’t have to, so eat me.
I use Excel and I hate the idea of using it, but Numbers just won’t do some things that Excel will do. I’ve used Excel for 12 years to analyze data with sophisticated sorts and data links, and Numbers is just too anemic. I’m sure Numbers is wonderful for a lot of people but it needs some sugnificant upgrades. It’s an area Apple needs to work on, and it could be a huge revenue stream going forward.
Screw that. I’ve been using Open Office and works fine. hehe
$400 if you want Access and Publisher.
Unlike Office 365, the Office 2013 software won’t receive regular updates.
I know this is supposed to be MS price-gouging. But it sounds more like SUICIDE to me. I hear a death knell ringing.
No one requires MS Office. The compatible alternatives are plentiful, cheaper (if not free), and often superior. Good going MS. 😆
@ Microsoft: suck it.
@ Apple: don’t you dare forcing this business model on your customers.
As suggested by an anal-yst I’m sure… Yes buy this don’t buy that…