Microsoft’s Office 365 has been a runaway success since launch. Office 365 is the subscription-based online Office suite and has been very popular for Microsoft. How popular? Office 365 Home Premium turned a year old recently. In its first year it picked up 3.5 million subscribers. An impressive feat in the consumer space for a product that costs $100 per year.
Though Office 365 Home Premium might be just a bit too much for people. Which is why starting this spring, Microsoft will be offering a new version of its subscription service – Office 365 Personal.
Is Office 365 Home Premium overkill for you? It might be since Home Premium costs $99.99 USD per year and allows up Office installations on up to 5 different machines. You also get an additional 20 GB of OneDrive storage tied to your Microsoft account. However most normal people don’t have an Ultrabook for everyday of the week, which is why Microsoft is offering Office 365 Personal.
Office 365 Personal is designed for a single individual. While the Home Premium variant might be shared among different members in a household. As an Office 365 Personal subscriber, you’ll be able to install Office on up to one PC (or Mac) and one tablet. The price is reduced from $99.99 per year for Home Premium to just $69.99/USD for Office 365 Personal. You can go month-to-month with Office 365 Personal for $6.99/USD a month.
Users of Personal will get the same features as Home, plus "60 minutes of Skype calling per month, 20 GB of additional OneDrive storage and always be up to date with the most recent version of Office".
Speaking of Office 365 Home Premium, that’s the old name. Or at least it will be. When Office 365 Personal comes this spring, Office 365 Home Premium will be rebranded to just Office 365 Home. Not major news, but easier names are always a good thing when it comes to a Microsoft product. Remember Windows Phone 7 Series?
Anybody out there thinking of picking up Office 365 Personal when it rolls out? Or is the $30 price reduction not worth losing four Office installations on your PC’s? Sound off below!
Source: Microsoft Office Blog
