Microsoft Paying Apple 30-Percent Cut on In-App Office 365 Subscription Purchases

[apolloa]

Why is this front page news? Seriously? Microsoft pay Apple the EXACT same cut of in app purchases as every single other app store developer does! Wow whoopee doo.....

Is this some attempt by Mac Rumours to make Microsoft look bad? For doing the same as is required of everyone else?

Please explain why this story is on the front page.

 

[zaphon]

Why is this front page news? Seriously? Microsoft pay Apple the EXACT same cut of in app purchases as every single other app store developer does! Wow whoopee doo.....

Is this some attempt by Mac Rumours to make Microsoft look bad? For doing the same as is required of everyone else?

Please explain why this story is on the front page.

Because there's a lot of people who probably expected them not to (and do something similar to the Kindle app for iDevices).

 

[Greg McBride]

Subscription Model

I happen to like the subscription model. $99/year includes installs on up to five computers (Mac and PC), so it's a pretty good value for a small business. Upgrades are included, so that makes it even sweeter. As much as I love iWork (a lot), so much of my workflow with clients relies on MS Office. Yes, I know you can export iWork docs to MS Office formats, but formatting gets screwed up, and a variety of other incompatibilities make it a less than perfect solution. Considering what MS used to charge for buying Office outright as well as for upgrades, this is really inexpensive. It's not for everyone. But, in a work environment where you need multiple installs and have a desire to stay current with versions, it's a winner. By the way, I feel the same way about Adobe CC. I'm willing to pay monthly to ensure that I have access to the most current versions of all of the apps in a particular suite. Software as a service has been around for years in the big corporate environments and it's something that is creeping its way into the consumer space, like it or not. As for me, put me in the "like" category.

By the way, in the limited time that I've spent with the new Office iPad apps, I think MS did a great job. (Ouch, it hurt me to say that.)

 

[Porco]

Renting software is like being forced to play arcade machines when you know you have a home console that can run the games just as well for a one-off fee.

Say no to rental software.

 

[zaphon]

Renting software is like being forced to play arcade machines when you know you have a home console that can run the games just as well for a one-off fee.

Say no to rental software.

Actually if you keep your software upgraded (MS and Adobe both being great examples of people doing the Subscription Model now), it's actually cheaper to do the subscription. It's only more expensive if you're that guy still using Office 2003 because you refuse to upgrade.

 

[irfuel]

And Microsoft does It again. It feels as if the board of directors always decides the less friendly option. People are tired of subscriptions, they should have charged a fixed amount of money and offer a fee for Onedrive. Then whenever they want to release a new version, they can charge again if the improvements are worth it.
They delayed 3 years to release Office for IOS and they do this silly subscription thing, this just doesn't make any sense, the same way Microsoft decisions in the last 10 years...

Well, that is the problem with the current iOS App Store (and the Mac one for that matter). The way it works is that you pay once for an app, and then you are entitled to free updates all along. That's just plain stupid. I can understand this for bugfixes and minor things, but as a developer you will never get any money out of doing major improvements to your app by giving people the choice to pay for the upgrade or don't upgrade at all.
The only solution to get recurrent revenue for an app that is under constant development is by using a subscription model.

It would be the same as buying Office '95 and getting all the new releases for free the next 20 years. Doesn't make sense.

 

[apolloa]

Because there's a lot of people who probably expected them not to (and do something similar to the Kindle app for iDevices).

What did they do with the Kindle app?

 

[Tanegashima]

I'm not sure if even 1% of iOS users are willing to accept this subcription model

That's a couple of millions of subscribers, then...




Yeah, Microsoft, bend the knee and pay the App tax.




After years of outright dominance and exploring users with their monopolistic schemes, we've come to this.


But it may even be worthy of the "New and Noteworthy" section...

 

[zaphon]

What did they do with the Kindle app?

You can't purchase books from within the Kindle app. You actually have to leave the app, open a web browser, navigate to amazon.com and buy the book through the web browser, and then you can download it to the kindle app. This eliminated the need to pay the 30% cut to Apple. However it's a pain compared to the experience on a Kindle device or Android Device.

MS could have easily done this as well (however the key is they can't tell you inside the app what to do, as if they we're to provide you a link then they would have to provide the same service inside the app). So it's a matter of convenience.

 

[RaoulDuke42]

I have the University subscription. $79 for 4 years. So that is worth it to me. I am all in on iWork, to be honest, and have been since 05/06? But I have to admit, I put Word specifically through the paces today. Some attachments I get never look right in Pages or just the Mail viewer. They render flawlessly in Word for iPad. The same iWork flaw, which is really an iOS limitation, is the lack of Calibri fonts.

So I'm curious- and this is a serious question, not snark. Is there a benefit to users that use the Calibri font? Or did MS just make it up and make it theirs to force incompatibility issues with non MS software (therefore forcing people to buy their stuff just to work with others better)? To my eye Calibri is nothing to write home about... but I'm not a graphic designer or typesetter or what have you.

I did read the wiki regarding this font, saw that it won some award... but well yeah, my question stands.

 

[TylerL]

This isn't surprising. Of the $99 physical boxed copy of Office 365 you see in stores, Microsoft probably gets close to the same 70%, if not less.
3rd party stores of all types, retail or internet, take their cut. It's part of doing business.

 

[larrybeo]

Apple jumped all over this product as soon as it was released. It's already "featured" in the App Store. What's wrong with Pages, Apple? LOL

 

[shandyman]

Actually if you keep your software upgraded (MS and Adobe both being great examples of people doing the Subscription Model now), it's actually cheaper to do the subscription. It's only more expensive if you're that guy still using Office 2003 because you refuse to upgrade.

Not really. The company I work for have the home usage program. I get office thru that for a £8.95 one off charge. I'm not paying that same amount monthly for office, it's a rip off. Even if I bought the home version of office at full price, that's £110 for the current version, which last approx 3 years until a new version comes out (give or take). 3 years of office 365 is £240. If you're still trying to tell me that office 365 is cheaper then you're insane.

 

[zaphon]

Apple jumped all over this product as soon as it was released. It's already "featured" in the App Store. What's wrong with Pages, Apple? LOL

Apple stands to make way more money off the 30% cut of the subscription fee to Office 365 then they do on Pages.

 

[The Doctor11]

Of course they need to give their 30% to apple. Why would Microsoft get special treatment? And it's not reall paying apple apple just takes that out of what thy make that month. And all apples really going to get out of this is $30

 

[virginblue4]

Thankfully my university pay for my 365 subscription, so I'll be enjoying these

 

[zaphon]

Not really. The company I work for have the home usage program. I get office thru that for a £8.95 one off charge. I'm not paying that same amount monthly for office, it's a rip off. Even if I bought the home version of office at full price, that's £110 for the current version, which last approx 3 years until a new version comes out (give or take). 3 years of office 365 is £240. If you're still trying to tell me that office 365 is cheaper then you're insane.

The office 365 subscription comes with the same apps as Office Pro (which retails for $399 here in the US). So $99 a year vs $399 is cheaper.

 

[Greg McBride]

Not really. The company I work for have the home usage program. I get office thru that for a £8.95 one off charge. I'm not paying that same amount monthly for office, it's a rip off. Even if I bought the home version of office at full price, that's £110 for the current version, which last approx 3 years until a new version comes out (give or take). 3 years of office 365 is £240. If you're still trying to tell me that office 365 is cheaper then you're insane.

You're forgetting that you can install on five machines for $99/year with an Office 365 subscription. For a single user, the subscription model is more expensive. For a small business or a home with multiple computers, it makes sense. So, is it for everyone? No. Is someone "insane" because they think it's a better deal for them? Absolutely not. The math works for some people and doesn't for others.

 

[iSRS]

So I'm curious- and this is a serious question, not snark. Is there a benefit to users that use the Calibri font? Or did MS just make it up and make it theirs to force incompatibility issues with non MS software (therefore forcing people to buy their stuff just to work with others better)? To my eye Calibri is nothing to write home about... but I'm not a graphic designer or typesetter or what have you.



I did read the wiki regarding this font, saw that it won some award... but well yeah, my question stands.

No, it's that the iPad, or iOS specifically, does not have that font. But I think since Office 2010 it is the default font in Office products.

It happens when I open the same documents in Pages for iOS. I get a warning that it might look different because the font Calbri is missing. Not a dig on anyone. Just a point.

Typeface is deeply personal, but Apple doesn't give a lot of choice in the matter on iOS.

 

[Menel]

Apple jumped all over this product as soon as it was released. It's already "featured" in the App Store. What's wrong with Pages, Apple? LOL

Wow lol even their own mini section!

1. Microsoft Office is a household known brand, its big to have it in their ecosystem.
2. Apple stands to make $30 per subscription

 

[ladeer]

[deleted]

 

[Greg McBride]

The office 365 subscription comes with the same apps as Office Pro (which retails for $399 here in the US). So $99 a year vs $399 is cheaper.

And you get to install on five computers for that price. Office Pro is a single computer. So, $399 for one license versus $99 for five licenses with Office 365. Five licenses of Office Pro would cost close to $2,000. So, you'd have to pay your Office 365 subscription for 20 years before spending more than that.

 

[zaphon]

And you get to install on five computers for that price. Office Pro is a single computer. So, $399 for one license versus $99 for five licenses with Office 365. Five licenses of Office Pro would cost close to $2,000. So, you'd have to pay your Office 365 subscription for 20 years before spending more than that.

And you can install it on Mac and PC and now iPad.

 

[dec.]

Why is this front page news? Seriously? Microsoft pay Apple the EXACT same cut of in app purchases as every single other app store developer does! Wow whoopee doo.....

Is this some attempt by Mac Rumours to make Microsoft look bad? For doing the same as is required of everyone else?

Please explain why this story is on the front page.

Some of the resident Microsoft specialists argumented that Microsoft would not need to pay Apple by using the subscription model.

And as so often - any interpretation - may it be negative or positive, is up to you.

 

[Greg McBride]

And you can install it on Mac and PC and now iPad.

Yeah, I forgot that part. I have four Macs and one PC in my work environment. $99/year has them all covered. Not to hard to justify that expense.