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We are both correct. $99 is the annual price. $9.99 is the monthly price ($9.99 x 12 months is $120). Either way its a lot of money for a consumer.

There’s already talk of a cheaper option at $70, with less licenses that would be better for home users.

Microsoft will soon release a cheaper $70/year personal account that covers two devices. This lower-cost version will likely be the most popular with iPad users who buy Office through the iPad app. And the lower price also means less revenue shared with Apple.

http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-sidesteps-apple-revenue-sharing-2014-3

(Personally, I think they should go $49 for 2 license, and could even drop the virtual storage per account as needed)
 
This thread is crazy about the price of Office.

I'd say it's for you or not, for those that use Office in their life it has value... And for those that don't, it doesn't have value.

I actually went in to pick up the 1 year Office deal they have in place for the first 50 to go into a Microsoft Store. And when you actually give it a second look, it's not bad at all... I share it with 3 people right now.

I plan to take this year trial to see whether I should keep it or not, then go from there. But Microsoft is majority a software company no need to compare Apple to Microsoft.
 
We are both correct. $99 is the annual price. $9.99 is the monthly price ($9.99 x 12 months is $120). Either way its a lot of money for a consumer.

Agreed but MS Office has always been an expensive suite

It all depends if you get value out of the 99 dollars that you don't get from the cheaper competitors.
 
I really hope office 2014 mac is on parity with office 2014 for windows


Balmer was a big enough idiot to think it was a good idea not update office on mac for 3.5 years
 
We are both correct. $99 is the annual price. $9.99 is the monthly price ($9.99 x 12 months is $120). Either way its a lot of money for a consumer.
But by deliberately choosing the more expensive path you're attempting to make your argument seem more valid. As has been pointed out, $99 is clearly advertised and by shopping around one can get it for $67. That is almost HALF of the price you are using.

So, is $67 a year "a lot of money for a consumer"? Students, faculty, and staff of colleges can get Office 365 for $79 for a 4 year subscription. (1 computer/1 tablet) Is $19 a year "a lot of money for a consumer" (who qualifies)?

I don't want to sound like a Microsoft salesmen but the intellectual dishonesty surrounding Office 365 is surprising...and unnecessary.
 
Agreed but MS Office has always been an expensive suite

It all depends if you get value out of the 99 dollars that you don't get from the cheaper competitors.

There’s already talk of a cheaper option at $70, with less licenses that would be better for home users.

But by deliberately choosing the more expensive path you're attempting to make your argument seem more valid. As has been pointed out, $99 is clearly advertised and by shopping around one can get it for $67. That is almost HALF of the price you are using.

So, is $67 a year "a lot of money for a consumer"? Students, faculty, and staff of colleges can get Office 365 for $79 for a 4 year subscription. (1 computer/1 tablet) Is $19 a year "a lot of money for a consumer" (who qualifies)?

I don't want to sound like a Microsoft salesmen but the intellectual dishonesty surrounding Office 365 is surprising...and unnecessary.



Expensive? Initial pricing of full version Office 2011 Home/Student was $119 and included 3 licenses. The $119 was a one time price which could be amortized over many years if a consumer didn't feel the need to upgrade. So use it for 4 year before upgrading and it works out to $2.47/mo, a far cry from even the lowest available price of $6.58/mo on Amazon.

So again, I find it difficult that a consumer would find value even at a discounted $79 (Amazon) price. Consumer access to just Word, PPT, and XLS should be $5/mo to at least be near the normal 2 year upgrade cycle. But even then do consumers need to upgrade their word processor every 2 years? Probably not.

Also Sracer, don't accuse me of intellectual dishonesty of using the $9.99/mo price in my initial post if you are going to use the academic only price (something most consumers are not eligible for) in your argument.
 
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I liked it more when people were finding other ways to get their office work done. Undoubtedly some people were bound to get this and demand was pent up but I think this will be short lived quite honestly. Once you realize how often you really don't use office it'll be nice to have the $70-$99 bucks/year back in your pocket.
 
So again, I find it difficult that a consumer would find value even at a discounted $79 (Amazon) price. Consumer access to just Word, PPT, and XLS should be $5/mo to at least be near the normal 2 year upgrade cycle. But even then do consumers need to upgrade their word processor every 2 years? Probably not.

Also Sracer, don't accuse me of intellectual dishonesty of using the $9.99/mo price in my initial post if you are going to use the academic only price (something most consumers are not eligible for) in your argument.
$79 is NOT the discounted price at Amazon, it is $67. Your response hasn't done anything to disabuse the claim of intellectual dishonesty. Because at $67 for the year, that works out to $5.58 per month, within $0.58 of what you said would be near normal 2 year upgrade cycle.

And I clearly explained who is eligible for the academic pricing. I didn't try to pass it off as the lower price (compared to your attempt to show that $120 was THE going price for a year's subscription)
 
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If are getting regular upgrades there is likely not a great difference between a subscription and a traditional purchase plan. If you are buying software with no plan of ever upgrading--like those photoshop 7 users -- then yes--its a "ripoff"

I would upgrade, but not every new version or even every other new version.

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There might be no compelling reason to upgrade to every version, but 2008 and 2004 have long reached their end of support date. So there are no security updates either.

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It's not only Macs, but also PCs and tablets. Calculating all those devices together many people have at least 3-4. You can also go with iWork, Google Docs, online Office, ...



You do what you want and if you'd like to give Microsoft more cash or use multiple devices illegally with only one licence, go for it. I already stated to you that with 2 or 3 devices it's far cheaper to go with 365 and even if you skip one version it would still be cheaper when using 4 or 5 devices. Using one version forever is also a bad idea because Office for Mac goes end of support after 5 years.

The people who want to give Microshaft more cash are people who are willing to pay $99/yr for life. Everyone who keeps trying defend subscription software for consumers keeps coming up with theoretical examples. "Well if I have two Macs and three PC's and five tablets and 28 iPhones...." And no one who is coming up with these scenarios are professing to be in that situation themselves, but, there must be someone out there who is, right? :rolleyes: Maybe. Even probably. But the number of individual consumers in that position and who use Office that much are few and far between.

P.S. I'd be willing to bet that 99.99% of people here (including yourself) have bought software and installed it on one more than one machine or installed it on a friend's machine, regardless of what the "license" says.

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When I buy software I keep it up to date. So what's the difference between paying for yearly upgrades and paying a yearly subscription.

Because there isn't a new version of Office every year. It's usually about every three to four years.
 
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Expensive? Initial pricing of full version Office 2011 Home/Student was $119 and included 3 licenses. The $119 was a one time price which could be amortized over many years if a consumer didn't feel the need to upgrade. So use it for 4 year before upgrading and it works out to $2.47/mo, a far cry from even the lowest available price of $6.58/mo on Amazon.

So again, I find it difficult that a consumer would find value even at a discounted $79 (Amazon) price. Consumer access to just Word, PPT, and XLS should be $5/mo to at least be near the normal 2 year upgrade cycle. But even then do consumers need to upgrade their word processor every 2 years? Probably not.

Also Sracer, don't accuse me of intellectual dishonesty of using the $9.99/mo price in my initial post if you are going to use the academic only price (something most consumers are not eligible for) in your argument.

I have to agree with you...and, as already pointed out, the upgrade cycle for Office on the Mac is almost 4 years. Maybe that will change now, who knows? But even if it does, one of the most frequent complaints I hear from my clients is that each new Upgrade changes the UI to such an extent that my clients hate the changes as it requires them to relearn the product. This is also true for Adobe products. I find many people still use Office 2008, the last version still maintaining some compatibility with OS 10.9. I would hope that any changes in the future are not as drastic to the UI but are gradual so to help reduce the anxiety caused by the radical changes you see now.

Also, while MS has stated they do intend to add Print functionality to the iOS version in the "future" what does that actually mean? "Future" and "Soon" are essentially marketing weasel words for "when we feel like it" or "After we offer better features" for our Windows and Surface Tablet apps. I don't have a lot of trust for MS until they begin to offer simultaneous updates across all platforms.
 
I know dozens of companies on the Forbes 500 list that are still using legacy apps/hand coded programs in their infrastructure to run their entire business. Some will never be able to update or would be unwilling. These are the same companies that are unlikely to care about switching off Office. And I don't say that as a slight to Office. I am just saying that the corporate world is likely to stay embedded with MS Office and Windows for a very very long time...

The company I work for falls into this category. The biggest issue I have with the current Office for iPad apps is that there is not an easy way to save back into Dropbox. My company blocks OneDrive, but not DropBox.
 
The company I work for falls into this category. The biggest issue I have with the current Office for iPad apps is that there is not an easy way to save back into Dropbox. My company blocks OneDrive, but not DropBox.

Yes, that is a problem, but I think everybody can understand why Microsoft is doing that. Just have a look at the iWork apps. They work with iCloud only and don't allow direct saving to Dropbox. Everybody is trying to push his own cloud solution and users must choose a side. This is not how technology should be, but this is how it is at the moment. It is the battle of ecosystems and we are right in the middle of it.
It would be really great if we saw companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft interoperate more, but I guess this is more of a dream than a realistic goal..
 
$79 is NOT the discounted price at Amazon, it is $67. Your response hasn't done anything to disabuse the claim of intellectual dishonesty. Because at $67 for the year, that works out to $5.58 per month, within $0.58 of what you said would be near normal 2 year upgrade cycle.

And I clearly explained who is eligible for the academic pricing. I didn't try to pass it off as the lower price (compared to your attempt to show that $120 was THE going price for a year's subscription)

Well, on the academic pricing we'll have to disagree. Why even bring it up a price as a point if it has restricted eligibility ?

On the Amazon pricing, I stand corrected. No problem with that at all. But if you go back to my original comment the context is consumer's needing to evaluate the need for a subscription. That's all. Yes, $67/year is more reasonable, but that also is a discounted price, not the regular price, not guaranteed to be available next week. Meanwhile consumers are stuck buying a subscription once they buy in or they lose access to those apps. I'll won't lose access to Office 2011 until Apple changes it's OS or processors again -- hopefully we won't have to go through that mess for a long time now.

Personally I've never upgraded Office every two years -- not sure I've ever had that opportunity given MacBU division constantly misses launch dates. I still don't see the value for consumers vs. buying a $119 copy and using it for 4 years.
 
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$79 is NOT the discounted price at Amazon, it is $67. Your response hasn't done anything to disabuse the claim of intellectual dishonesty. Because at $67 for the year, that works out to $5.58 per month, within $0.58 of what you said would be near normal 2 year upgrade cycle.

And I clearly explained who is eligible for the academic pricing. I didn't try to pass it off as the lower price (compared to your attempt to show that $120 was THE going price for a year's subscription)

Disabuse the claim of intellectual dishonesty? Seriously??
 
I downloaded the apps out of curiosity but deleted it after 5 minutes. Excel without macros is like a car without the engine.

Excel without macros? Wasn't that one of the reasons why folks were ******** all over iWork and screaming for MS to release office for iOS.

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It's also near the top of the grossing charts which means people are subscribing/paying

arn

Yes but is it as many folks as it might seem. Or is it mainly a factor that the average IAP is $0.99 and this is way above that so each person carries more weight.
 
But by deliberately choosing the more expensive path you're attempting to make your argument seem more valid. As has been pointed out, $99 is clearly advertised and by shopping around one can get it for $67. That is almost HALF of the price you are using.

So, is $67 a year "a lot of money for a consumer"? Students, faculty, and staff of colleges can get Office 365 for $79 for a 4 year subscription. (1 computer/1 tablet) Is $19 a year "a lot of money for a consumer" (who qualifies)?

I don't want to sound like a Microsoft salesmen but the intellectual dishonesty surrounding Office 365 is surprising...and unnecessary.

Student/University version actually covers 2 computers/2 tablets for 4 years. You could also find discounts for that. When it first came out last year, I got it for $49.99. If you avoid the app store, there are plenty of discounts for Office out there. Some you could get from Frys Electronics, with their rebates. There are some rebates if you show proof that you're upgrading, etc... Then there are always some in store coupons that will be offered.

The only reason people should are paying the full price for the Office 365 subscription is they're not doing their homework on the best deal.

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Well, on the academic pricing we'll have to disagree. Why even bring it up a price as a point if it has restricted eligibility ?

On the Amazon pricing, I stand corrected. No problem with that at all. But if you go back to my original comment the context is consumer's needing to evaluate the need for a subscription. That's all. Yes, $67/year is more reasonable, but that also is a discounted price, not the regular price, not guaranteed to be available next week. Meanwhile consumers are stuck buying a subscription once they buy in or they lose access to those apps. I'll won't lose access to Office 2011 until Apple changes it's OS or processors again -- hopefully we won't have to go through that mess for a long time now.

Personally I've never upgraded Office every two years -- not sure I've ever had that opportunity given MacBU division constantly misses launch dates. I still don't see the value for consumers vs. buying a $119 copy and using it for 4 years.

Just an FYI, but depending on where you're from, it's actually cheaper to register for community college and get one of their .edu email account. The total of the reregistration, and Office 365 University, would be less than $99.
 
It's just not worth the money... No matter what you think of iWork vs. Office, I'll take a free or cheap one-time purchase over $99 a year any day.

If that cheap software has what you need why not do it that way. Most of my 'office' work is for me or for folks I know use Mac and have the same software. I don't need fancy or pretty I just need readable. I can get that so I have no need for this extra cost.

Others might feel different and in the sense that they will shut up and be ahoy I am happy that this software came out. I would like to see iWork improved on both device sets and I think it will be over time and that will make me happy for the sake of those that want it to be more.

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So you imply that 100,000 Microsoft employees started downloading Office on their iPads, as soon as the app was out..Yeah...right

Of course they didn't. Microsoft employees aren't allowed to have iOS devices (excluding the handful that are used for testing these apps but no personal use is allowed). Same with having Mac computers.
 
In App purchase a mess!!

To my horror, I am unable to use my Office 365 Home purchased using in App is not getting activated and many are having this issue. While trying to launch Word at the time of first time activation (Post successful In App purchase) it gives you an error message saying that Purchase was successful but activation could not complete. Apple Support prompt in responding that this is not their problem. Microsoft support gave generic pointer with an URL.

Problem is the subscription day started without effective usage of the services!!!
 
If that $99 covers all three apps, has a good 50GB of space then it isn't hideous.

Office 365 covers every application provided with Office Professional, gives you 20GB of OneDrive space, access to the mobile apps, and lets you slap them on 5 computers.

If you just want to use one Office app on the iPad, then it's not too spectacular a deal. Probably a little too expensive for such a limited use case. But if you're using multiple apps across multiple machines, up to and including the iPad, then it's a helluva deal.
 
Ewwwwwwwwww! Imagine using an iPad after manually stimulating livestock for artificial insemination? Or even worse, being the one to use it after that?

Imagine being the one asked to repair said iPads. Or even other animal stimulation

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People just do not get it. Everyone at work gets an Office 360 account, Basically this just killed whatever chance iWorks had in enterprise.

Perhaps. And then Apple releases a countermove and rebalances things. They had their iWork.com for a while, perhaps it isn't dead so much as being merged into iCloud for a shared documents stream similar to the shared photo stream.
 
I'll break this down very simply in Apple terms. Apple tends to describe their different skews of a device as Good, Better, and Best. Just like 16gb, 32gb, and 64gb iPads have been described internally, or their Wifi only versus their LTE options. Everyone has their own preference, and their needs for productivity. Not everyone will need Office, but for a professional setting, Office would be best.

Truthfully, some people can get by with the Notes app, Evernote, Google Chrome apps online, or even Web Based Office, which is free with at outlook.com. That's good for them.

What would be better is iWorks with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. It gives them more options.

However, what is best is Office suite. It's the most robust and fully functional productivity suite. What people has to consider is do they really need the best for what they do? For me, it's a yes because I've dealt with enough formatting error from exporting and with presentations to settle for what is essentially a professional standard. Additionally, everything will be saved on the cloud.
 
Ok , i want to scream it. I CANNOT WORK ON TABLET OFFICE SUIT. Its pain in the ass. They are only valuable as a readers. You cant work on this device.

For large scale document creation I agree. It's not a great ergonomic game. But for quick edits it is doable in a pinch (I'm talking 'oops that comma should be a period' level stuff)
 
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