Before reading this blog, Please see the official pricing from MS:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/presskits/office/docs/PlacematFS.docx
Now, I have a smart phone and a tablet and I should say, I am spoiled by the pricing models of those.
I, like millions of other users, was excited to see that MS was going to have a subscription based model for office and it was going to affordable (!). I should say that I was disappointed to see the pricing. $100 / year for 5 user license? What were you guys thinking? Is this your way of making things affordable? We get it, you can't discount the retail version to make sure that the millions of businesses which pays for volume licenses think that they get a good deal. But $100 / year? Really? So, let us take a simple example, I paid $149 for 3 user license in 2007 or something for Office 2K7, I would have paid $500 over 5 years for same stupid piece of software, if I were to subscribe to your "Affordable" subscription based model. BTW, I still can use office 2K7 and it works pretty good.
These sort of stupid decisions from MS makes me think, do they really listen to their users? I was excited when they announced that Win 8 is going to be $39.99 and bought two copies. I would have done the same if MS Office is priced similarly. We all live in a age where we buy games and apps for our phones/tablets for $0.25 - $15, I don't see why I should pay more for desktop based software? I am not asking for $15 MS office, but a $40/license or $5/month subscription for home users would make more sense. Or MS could have left the $149 price tag on the retail version and just could have just offered the subscription based model for, let's say $5/month. If MS is afraid that users might subscribe when it is needed and cancel it next month, should I remind them that, it IS the advantage of subscription based model? Consumers win? For eg: I can put Netflix subscription on hold for a month, when I go for a vacation.
Anyway, I have decided to start using LibreOffice, and try to avoid using MS office going forward. When O2K7 is unsupported or if my hardware dies, I will use only LibreOffice. MS - Thanks for reminding me that you don't listen to your customers. You just lost one MS office customer (which is not a big deal as most of your money comes from enterprise customers).
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/presskits/office/docs/PlacematFS.docx
Now, I have a smart phone and a tablet and I should say, I am spoiled by the pricing models of those.
- You pay for the apps only once and you get to use it on multiple devices.
- You don't have to pay for the same app again, when you replace the phone / tablet.
- Updates or mostly seamless
I, like millions of other users, was excited to see that MS was going to have a subscription based model for office and it was going to affordable (!). I should say that I was disappointed to see the pricing. $100 / year for 5 user license? What were you guys thinking? Is this your way of making things affordable? We get it, you can't discount the retail version to make sure that the millions of businesses which pays for volume licenses think that they get a good deal. But $100 / year? Really? So, let us take a simple example, I paid $149 for 3 user license in 2007 or something for Office 2K7, I would have paid $500 over 5 years for same stupid piece of software, if I were to subscribe to your "Affordable" subscription based model. BTW, I still can use office 2K7 and it works pretty good.
These sort of stupid decisions from MS makes me think, do they really listen to their users? I was excited when they announced that Win 8 is going to be $39.99 and bought two copies. I would have done the same if MS Office is priced similarly. We all live in a age where we buy games and apps for our phones/tablets for $0.25 - $15, I don't see why I should pay more for desktop based software? I am not asking for $15 MS office, but a $40/license or $5/month subscription for home users would make more sense. Or MS could have left the $149 price tag on the retail version and just could have just offered the subscription based model for, let's say $5/month. If MS is afraid that users might subscribe when it is needed and cancel it next month, should I remind them that, it IS the advantage of subscription based model? Consumers win? For eg: I can put Netflix subscription on hold for a month, when I go for a vacation.
Anyway, I have decided to start using LibreOffice, and try to avoid using MS office going forward. When O2K7 is unsupported or if my hardware dies, I will use only LibreOffice. MS - Thanks for reminding me that you don't listen to your customers. You just lost one MS office customer (which is not a big deal as most of your money comes from enterprise customers).
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