Office 2013 - Pricing from the Cloud

Microsoft is doing their part to expand the future of computer services in the cloud. With Office 2013 consumers as well as corporate users are being enticed in a very real way to move to the cloud with subscription services. The days of running out to Best Buy or Staples and purchasing your software on media discs are almost at an end.

Although the actual release date of Office 2013 has yet to be released it is assumed it will be available by the end of 2013. Subscription prices are set to be under $9.00 per month. What do you get for that? Actually I am impressed with what Microsoft is offering.

For under $9 per month the consumer may install Office 2013 on up to 5 individual computers including Macs. In addition the primary account holder will get up to 27 gigabytes of space on SkyDrive. Microsoft is also promising regular updates and improvements for subscribers.

Can you still purchase Office on a disc? The licensing for the retail editions has been made much more restrictive then it's cloud service version. Each copy is good on only one machine, and there are no volume discounts or family packs. This could make Office a much more expensive purchase when multiple family members need it. It might just be Microsoft’s way of herding everyone toward the subscription versions. The "Home" version is set at $219 while the "Professional" version is set at $399. Obviously at under $99/year the cloud service is actually more affordable and flexible when you consider all of the other advantages offered.

Another interesting change in the launch of Microsoft Office's own "app store" which will offer more add-on applications for Office products then we have ever seen before.

At the borough we have been subscribed to "Office 365" for over an year now and I believe it has been everything Microsoft indicated it would be. There is surely more detailed information coming from Microsoft soon. Stay tuned and prepare to jump on Microsoft's cloud with Office 13!