Would a Subscription-based Microsoft Office be Successful?
It looks as though Microsoft is more than just dabbling with the idea of offering a subscription-based version of Microsoft Office. According to CNet in the next few days they will launch a limited Beta program of a project codenamed Albany. With it you would agree to pay a subscription that includes Microsoft Office Home and Student as well as the OneCare security suite. That way when new versions of the software are released you’ll automatically be eligible for the upgrade!
It sounds great to me, but there seem to be a few skeptics out there. Some aren’t too fond of the idea that if you don’t pay your dues the software will come to a screeching halt. That’s understandable, but it all boils down to what price Microsoft will consider fair for the software suite.
I’m not sure what price would be within my comfort zone. Five dollars a month seems like a sweet spot, but I’m guessing that will be on the low end for Microsoft. The list price for Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is $150, but some bargain hunting will reveal prices closer to $120. At just $5 per month that would take Microsoft two years to recoup the cost, and then there’s also OneCare that I haven’t accounted for in that pricing.
My guess is that Microsoft will charge between $5 and $10 per month for the entire suite. If this turns out to be successful it’s possible that they will adopt a similar subscription plan for Windows, but it may not be worth it if there are large gaps between the releases like there was for XP and Vista.
Thanks to Omar for the tip!
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Tags: Software, Windows, Beta, Cost, Microsoft, Microsoft Office
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There were indications that this is going to happen ever since the first web based applications appeared . Microsoft of course is trying to fight with piracy by offering such a subscription model – but I doubt that it will be successful. The companies who works with Office probably have their licenses by now – and as for the regular students there are plenty of open source alternatives they can use .
Windows update next, “You hav’nt paid for your vista to be fixed, please renew your subscription.”
Yes, I think this is inevitable, but the bottom line here folks, is that the Open Office suite is more than fine for probably 90% of Office users. When version 3 hits, it’ll be even better. For those that just want Word, Excel and Powerpoint, why pay MS when another product is available free? OO is brilliant. Anyone reading who is skeptical or afraid it’s not the same, check it out – I was once YOU
I agree. Love OpenOffice and use it all the time. I do have MS Office on this machine only because it came pre-loaded (oddly enough so did MS Works) but never use it.
If you pay $5/m while you can get a full version for $120, what guarantee do you have that MS *will* come out with a new version within 2 years? Office 2007 was the next version after 2003, that’s 4 years. I think $5/m or $50/y will be reasonable prices though, but it might not be the best investment..
OpenOffice here I come
Well, that depends! What do people have more of – money or brains? I’m not a statistician, so I wouldn’t know…
Most MS Office users only utilize a small percentage of the productivity software, but because of the brand, they are willing to pay several hundred dollars just to be comfortable having it.
If you are a mainstream user, I would say Open Office, Zoho, Google Docs, IBM Symphony and a whole lot of other software that escape my mind at this moment, will be just fine. However Microsoft have drilled our minds to convince us that we need their office. This is not true most of the time.
Linux users probably will never use MS Office.
Just my 2 cents worth.
For me, I am comfortable with using Google Docs or OpenOffice. However, I feel that OpenOffice Impress is still not ready to take on PowerPoint so many Microsoft Office users are still holding back. For $5/mth, I may consider using Microsoft Office again with the cost spread over the whole year.
No matter what they say there is always going to be version that works “illegally”. That’s how they keep their monopoly up and running. The more people uses free softwares the more those are developed and the less MS is able to really sell their own. Its clear that many companies cannot even consider those free softwares that linux fans thinks are soooo great, but home users can.
I’m sure that most companies wanting to upgrade do already have their licenses, but Microsoft has to start this at sometime. They are probably hoping that starting it now might get people to jump on the bandwagon when the next version is released.
I actually used that for several years, but I eventually got into Visual Basic for Applications programming which caused me to switch back to Microsoft Office. I’ve actually made some specialized spreadsheets for companies using VBA.
That’s really just it though. You have to be confident in Microsoft’s ability to provide updates on a regular basis. I don’t think they will make the same mistake of letting so much time pass by again.
My university had MS Office installed on all the Linux machines using Crossover. So I wouldn’t say never.