Have MS shot them selves in the foot with this idea?

[LeithR]

Just seen on Cnet.

CNET Community

Would you subscribe to the new Microsoft Office?

Dear CNET members,

Microsoft officially launched Office 2013 today. And if you haven't heard already, the company's offering it in several versions, including one that is subscription based, called Microsoft Office 365. Rather than the traditional method of buying the Office suite outright for a one time fee, you can subscribe to Office 365 for $99 a year. For that subscription price, you get the complete Office suite including Outlook, Publisher, and Access; you can install it on five computers; you get 1 hour of Skype calls each month; 20GB of online storage; and you get all new updates/upgrades that Microsoft pushes out on its Office products. Microsoft thinks that this subscription model is easier to manage, allows for automatic upgrades, and gives customers flexibility to use the software on any device. With the traditional Office, you are only allowed to install it on one computer, and if you wanted the latest and greatest features, you had to buy the upgraded version. You also have to pay to install it on more than one computer.

So what do you think? Is this new subscription-based Microsoft Office something that you would buy? Or would you stick with the traditional method of buying software outright? Do you think subscription is the way of the future? And, more importantly, will you get your money's worth with this type of plan?

I think they would have a hard time making this one fly.

[ally]

hey leith

having worked with someone who saw 'free' as cheap/no good don't be surprised that loads will buy this

some people just like spending money even though free/open-source/better alternatives are out there, just like spending

go figure......

[ICPUG]

This is probably focussed on Enterprise purchases and they don't think like us. As consumers rapidly move to tablets, Macs and free software the Enterprise is the only market left for Microsoft.

I remember the time when before PCs came along computer time was charged to departments on a per second of use charge. Microsoft are going back to the future with the subscription model!

[ICPUG]

I've just seen an interesting review here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/30 ... 65_review/

It would seem MS are promoting the subscription model by removing the advantages of the DVD model. No longer can you get upgrade versions so every time a new Office comes out you have to pay full price for the DVD as if it were a new version.

It also seems that bug fixes will only come with the subscription model too.

The above article puts forward the theory that MS may in the future move to rolling release and subscription model only.

[tallboy]

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