RSSMicrosoft embraces subscription model in Office + Windows Live bundle
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published July 2, 2008, 11:32 AM
For years, customers have asked for an affordable subscription-based service for what has typically been perceived as Microsoft's steeply-priced software. If seventy bucks a year seems affordable enough, it's finally coming.
It could be one of Microsoft's most significant moves in the home applications market in years -- long overdue, many will say, but finally arriving. Beginning later this month, the company will offer an annual subscription package that bundles together its Office Home and Student 2007 suite with Windows Live Services, Office Live Workspace, and Windows Live OneCare, for $69.99 annually.
Currently, Windows Live OneCare -- the company's pro-active, anti-malware subscription service -- is sold at an annual subscription rate of $49.99. For twenty bucks more per year, Microsoft is throwing in a software suite whose average retail street price today is about $125, and licensing it for installation on up to three PCs.
And perhaps most astonishingly of all, Microsoft has come up with a short, sweet, self-explaining brand name for this service: Equipt. Not "Microsoft Home Office and/or Student Productivity and Safety Bundle 2008," but an actual brand that customers can remember and ask for.
The Home and Student suite comes with the basic four Office components: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Outlook is not among these, but Microsoft addresses the e-mail component of the package instead with Windows Live Mail (note, not Windows Live Hotmail). This and the other Windows Live services were, of course, free anyway (Messenger, Photo Gallery, Live Writer, and Live Toolbar), though this service should drive membership for Windows Live.
Compellingly, Microsoft also adds Office Live Workspace to this package, which is the "cloud" storage feature that enables remote storage and sharing of Office documents, that's officially still in beta. The mid-month availability of Equipt suggests that this feature may come out of beta within the next few weeks. Granted, this service has also been free up to now, but just its inclusion as part of the installation routine for Equipt means it will probably see significantly greater use among high school and college students.
1:35 pm EDT July 2, 2008 - A Microsoft spokesperson did address a number of BetaNews' questions on the Equipt bundle early this afternoon. For instance, this morning's announcement only mentioned Circuit City as a retailer that would be making Equipt available in box form in mid-July for $69.99, to cover the first year's fee. Is there any exclusivity involved here, and can consumers expect to see this price for the same box available elsewhere, and at the same time?
"Circuit City is a leading Microsoft retail partner and is able to support the Microsoft Equipt launch with a highly trained retail sales force and tech bench services as well as prominent in-store marketing and merchandising," a Microsoft spokesperson told us. "Microsoft will continue to investigate additional retail partnerships to make it easy for our customers to obtain this product, and you may see us offer via OEM, direct from Microsoft, etc. So while Circuit City is the first partner retailer to offer Microsoft Equipt, they are not the exclusive provider, no."
Next, we asked if Microsoft intends to use the Windows Live Mail address of the subscriber as a way of communicating with her directly -- perhaps to notify her of upgrades or new services, for instance.
"There is no concrete policy in place yet for the upgrade notification process," Microsoft's spokesperson responded, "but we're aiming to be more thoughtful regarding notifications -- we will communicate the upgrades that are coming [and] that are available, we won't force them upon customers on a particular day in time, and we will provide instructions for them on how to obtain the upgrades."
In the enterprise market, annual volume subscribers to Windows Vista are often given exclusive features and upgrades as part of Microsoft's pledge to maximize value in exchange for customer commitments. Will a similar pledge be made for consumers through Equipt?
Evidently not. "The updates for the individual components (OneCare, Office Home and Student) would be available to the subscriber when they are available on the market, so a subscriber would not have to wait until they pass their annual subscription renewal date to receive those upgrades," we were told.
This suggests that the Home and Student edition will continue to exist as a package for sale separately, although we don't yet know whether it will be discounted to remain competitive with the subscription option.
Microsoft's spokesperson declined comment on whether the company has considered a future bundle of products such as Equipt with Windows Home Server, though it was not ruled out.
A lot of the powerful features that office provided were never or used very little, hence why they got removed from the ribbon when it was introduced.
The core features that the ribbon provides now are in most 3rd party authoring applications.. and they run cross platform too.
The only reason Microsoft can get away with charging so much for their software at the moment is because many businesses insist that the work be done on Microsoft's Office to ensure its compatible. Things are chancing though; with governments, schools and many business starting to see that document standards is something that can be used cross platform with alternate applications and that the features are all in the free software they need.
The only thing I think is good about Microsoft's office at the moment is the speed of it. Loading times are much faster then any other alternative and it works with really big documents without losing any speed. But these things aren't something that most office workers will notice, certainly not home users.
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I think if you buy a stand alone program, you're looking at replacing it in 3-5 years anyway. The subscription sounds like a much better deal. You'll always have up to date programs for less money. If you try to stick with an old program, eventually it will not be compatible with what your friends and associates have.
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Only Power(less) users would prefer Google Docs (which by the way has been purchased by google from someone else). I bet.. right now nothing is as powerful as MS Office!
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Although they offer primarily a word processor, another alternative is Adobe's Buzzword. This blows away Google's word processor. No spreadsheet though.
But in the end I'd rather work directly on even a low end circa 2000 computer. Why suffer the latency frustration of online apps when one has such vast power on the desktop (or laptop)?
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From the very beginning we all knew this was coming... Microsoft's foothold on the software market to charge whatever for whatever. $70 a year is not cheap considering all of the other nickle and dimeing that goes on in association with personal computers. Not that Sun was above this or not the reason the original Microsoft came to exist in the first place.
Fortunately, the founders of Linux saw this coming. Then Google got involved. The problem remains, however, that computer related monopolies are easily created and that monopolies are infamous for arm twisting.
Ask any customer of IBM. There is no solution except to do the same to your own sources of income so as not to be left behind. One day perhaps like electricity and water supply a government rate regulating entity will have to become involved.
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less then $6/month...one gallon of gas is almost more expensive then that right now....
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Ya, I think its best to get openoffice at openoffice.org. This one is missing the database, which is nice for all sorts of things. And its totally free, nothing else, you can always get equip After at least trying open office.
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Sounds like another excellent reason to switch over to open-source software or other free services which provide equivalent or superior functionality to Microsoft's poorly engineered, bloated software.
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To Fatty
googledocs is nice and all but I don't like working in a web browser...also, i'm not always online while working on papers and spreadsheets etc. I travel alot and work on planes and cabs etc. Besides, i've used GoogleDocs and it doesn't have half the features i like in the Office Suit. Hopefully, they will come out with a professional version of this suit that'll give me access and outlook and stuff too. Anyways, no point in arguing with you.
Arguing on the internet is like the special Olympics. Win or Lose you're still a retard.
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I hear you. That is why Google has Gears so you can use Google Docs offline and seamless sync back up when you get online.
Also, MS Equipt is not for professional use, only for personal use. Of course, there is no such restriction on Google Docs but that is besides the point.
I must admit, i was skeptical of Google Docs when i first saw it, but now i am a convert. I do tons of stuff with it and have seen no limitations. I even keep my resume on it.
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"Currently, Windows Live OneCare -- the company's pro-active, anti-malware subscription service "
So Microsoft creates a POS O/S that is full of spam and virus's but for an annual cost they'll get rid of that for you. I am happy to report I do not own one piece of Microsoft software. Yeah for Google and Linux.
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And not owning MS stuff makes you an expert on it. How?
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M$ Equipt - $69.99
Google Docs - $0 (only need a web browser so you can truely access your stuff anywhere, not to mention sharing with everyone even if they do not use google services. Just need a web browser)
2 years....
M$ ~$140
Google $0
3 years....
M$ $210
Google $0
4 years....
M$ $280
Google $0
maybe if M$ threw in Vista Ultimate (3 machine license) it would be worth a thought, but this is still _way_ over priced for what you get.
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I like and use Google docs extensively but obviously your daily routine does not involve many intellectual tasks if the cost difference does not make sense to you...
What I'd like to see is an online version of Office thrown into Mesh to tie it all together.
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I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but soft is spelled with a "s" not a dollar sign.
I apologize if you have some sort of mental disorder.
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He's just one of those guys that thinks MS wants to make a profit and the rest of the companies don't care about making money....they all exist for the good of the people, see? :)
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Only a fool can compare Microsoft Office with Google Docs. As of yet I have not seen anything that can outperform Microsoft Office.
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It's just the kid in him! He should actually be out mowing the lawn. If it is not done by the time dad gets home, he will not be able to get on the Play Station tonight.
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what a fattget
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