This can certainly happen. And it isn't even difficult to picture,
We've seen it before, just take a look at the poster child 1Password. Slowly boiling the frog by removing features from stand alone licenses, until only one option existed.
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Microsoft Office to Become 'Microsoft 365' in Biggest Brand Overhaul in More Than 30 Years
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We've seen it before, just take a look at the poster child 1Password. Slowly boiling the frog by removing features from stand alone licenses, until only one option existed.
I'd like for people to provide actual numbers, although given this tends to be private information, probably can't count on it.
The only reason people would still keep subbing to a service they don't like or no longer get value out of is because they forget, or are lazy. However, I'd argue this isn't a good reason, and you could get exploited as a tech consumer in other ways anyways. I know with streaming services, when content or features get yanked, that community is quit to cancel their subs (esp. if they're on monthly. Otherwise, for annual plans, they cancel now, and don't let that auto-renew).
For me at least, when I get a 1-time license purchase, I am NOT motivated to get the new version. I'll stay on that one for as long as possible. Especially with Office since the for us consumers don't need every new major version (the extra features can be very helpful for the corporate environment though). I'm currently doing that with Office 2016. My father used Office 2001 until it no longer worked (he's on Libre Office now). Many here are also on versions of Office that are from the 00s decade.
Well put all of it, but this one extremely true for Office:
It is a sad state of things when you think you need your MS Office to have frequent "updates", but never ever reach a stable and complete version.
A lot of people are experiencing subscription fatigue and every company seems to be considering moving to a subscription only model if they haven’t already. I have close to ten subscriptions at the moment and a good number of people have more than that. I also think many companies are using the move to a subscription only model to “mask” unreasonable price increases and with inflation the way it is today, that is increasingly leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of many consumers. These companies are hoping consumers “just get used to it”, but I think companies will have a much higher bar to clear to prove that their service is worth the increases/being “locked in” and not perceived as merely a money grab. I think a good number of them would fail that “test” at the moment.
I'm sorry but I think you need to work out your maths.
You claim to have purchased four versions of office. At an average price of about $600 per version, you have paid $2,400 in software from Microsoft.
Office 365 Family (which I subscribe to), is $100 per year. So all in all, you have spent what would be 24 years worth of use of Office 365. If you use the personal edition, you'd get 34 years out of that.
Same product, plus a lot more including 1TB of cloud storage and tons more.
If you had the family edition, you can include up to 5 family members across 5 systems (which was definitely not permitted in the old model).
Heck, even if you bought the business version (to get Publisher and Access - the former never included in Office unless you got the top premium version), you would get the equivalent of 20 years.
And bear in mind, throughout that subscription, you would always have the latest version of the software. Always.
Based on your historical purchases, a subscription model works very nicely for you and very much in your favour.
Much like your bank accounts, you should keep track of your subs and remove them if unused.
I too have a ton on my plate, but they are used.
- Apple One
- YouTube Premium
- Spotify
- Microsoft 365
- Adobe Photography 1TB
- Zwift
- Netflix
- Amazon Prime
- Disney+
- Strava
Could be worse. Could have been "Worldwide," with "Mr. Worldwide" Pitbull as the new face of the brand.
Ergh. Do you know how many people I saw when working in a retail phone store that used the Google app on their iPhone or iPad as a web browser.
Most didn’t know what safari was.
Office Home & Student is currently a 1 time purchase price of $149. Not sure where you got $600 from.
source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/mic...2021/CFQ7TTC0H8N8?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
I can’t help to think that after using “Microsoft Office” for 20 years, I’ll probably still be calling it MS Office 20 years from now. Shorter time frame, but Coke Zero has been “Coke Zero Sugar” for some time now. Except for those who actually drink it and ask for Coke Zero at the counter. I still ask-why?
Is that why they want me to pay $5 per month for a some crappy photo editing app? You make some points, but they are using the subscription model because it makes more money for them. Period.
iPad Pro 12.9” M1 256gb. It can do all that multitasking but the OneDrive app… cannot.
Yeah nah. I’ll just use iWork or Google doc & those alternatives on drive
I really don’t get the appeal for Word… Excel and Outlook sure, but why oh why is Word the “standard” text processing software. It’s horrible in basically every way. It’s terrible for formatting and page design (it does all kinds of random things you don’t want it to do), and it’s terrible as a simple text editor too (wayyyy overblown). There is so much better software out there for text formatting (LaTeX!!). This is a classic example of something being a standard not because it’s the best, but just because it’s pushed by industry.
I think it was supposed to refer to it being available to use 365 days out of the year. But Microsoft blew it on that pretty quickly. With all of their cloud issues and downtime to date, it's probably more of a 361 product.
I'd say they're only well-suited to this model when you're talking about corporate or educational purchasing vs individuals for home use.
The reason so many people dislike the subscription model lies in the fact that for home use, the vast majority of people just want to pay once for the application they need and don't care about having the latest release all the time after that. It can even be the polar opposite. I knew a graphics designer who used Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and never wanted to go to a version newer than a specific older release (like v14) that was his favorite. He was paid well to simply draw the fonts and graphics for the outsides of shipping containers for goods getting imported from China to the USA. He had all he needed in those releases of the apps and his collection of templates and artwork. Zero interest in some subscription that would force him onto newer releases with new things to learn and menus moved around, etc. etc.
I heartily recommend installing TeamViewer or something if you're regularly called in to do elder tech support. It's seriously a lifesaver to just remote in when they've accidentally made their browser window the wrong size and "the computer is broken" 🤣JUST as I get the old folks to understand that "Word" is not "Windows" when I try to remotely trouble shoot
But wasn’t Office also available 365 days a year? It’s just not clear to me, and I thought the Office branding was solid. Whole Food’s 365 private label branding makes sense since it conveys everyday low prices.
While there may be some people who sign up and forget it, most people are very aware of all of subs they pay for. Sure, you can cancel a streaming service if they don’t air the programming you prefer for two or three months, but it’s far from ideal if you’re constantly juggling around subs depending on the value/benefit proposition they offer you at the current time. In that case, some people may simply turn to the alternative.