Microsoft releases Office 2013

Microsoft

Microsoft announced Tuesday the worldwide release of Office 365 Home Premium.

Office 365 Home Premium includes popular programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. The software suite will also come with 20 gigabytes of SkyDrive cloud storage, 60 minutes of free world calls on Skype and can be used on up to five devices.

Microsoft is taking a new approach to pricing with Home Premium suite. Instead of one price out the door, customers will have to pay an annual subscription of $99.99.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is touting the new Office 365 as a "consumer cloud service." The software giant has been ramping up cloud integration with SkyDrive to bring Office programs online.

Microsoft also released Office 365 University edition for college students, faculty and staff. The software is offered at $79.99 for a four-year subscription.

[jimbobkalina]

Dont these companies realize that not everyone has high speed internet yet? I have been screaming for them to update equipment where I live. Satelite and many cell plans are limited, and I for one dont want to use the cloud. Privacy anyone?

[boatdocster]

Office Suite 2003 - still meets all my needs...

[Scimajor]

There's ZERO chance that I'd pay a subscription for Office. ZERO! What the heck are they thinking? I predict, and it's easy to do so, that this will be a HUGE flop. Worse than Windows ME by a long shot.

Consider this Microsoft. OpenOffice is free and does most of what Office does and there are plenty of free Cloud services out there (e.g. Google Drive 5 GBytes free).

Oh and WOW 60 minutes of free world calls!!!! YAWN!!!!!!!! Just use SKYPE/OOVOO device to device and it's infinite minutes free for .... free.

Bill? Are you watching what your company is doing? You might want to make some phone calls man.

[DontHate12]

You are ignorant. This article is also misleading. Office 365 is a software as a service deal and allows for multiple computers to run it. HOWEVER you can still buy office as a package that has NO subscription just like every other office. That package only includes 6gb of skydrive and limited to a computer.

[Scimajor]

Did you actually read what I wrote????? Here, I'll copy it for you: "There's ZERO chance that I'd pay a subscription for Office.".

I was simply addressing my disgust with the concept of the subscription model. I never even mentioned the "Pay once. Use forever model." because that's not what the article was talking about nor was I.

Here's a tip: Read first.