Microsoft on Wednesday announced that Circuit City will be the first to offer a new Office subscription service, first known by its 'Albany' code name and now dubbed 'Equipt'.The purpose of this system is to convert more PC buyers into Office buyers. Typically when the average consumer buys a PC, a purchase of Microsoft Office is not the first thing on their mind, but rather security.
With this new service, Microsoft hopes to break that trend, and bundle a subscription version of Office Home and Student, along with Microsoft OneCare, for $69 per year.
Gordon said some less sophisticated users think they are getting a copy of Office as part of their PC purchase and are disappointed when they come home and find only a trial version of Office. "That's when a lot of folks will start digging through the drawer for an old copy."
In the future, Microsoft hopes to expand this service to other retailers, and via other means such as computer distributers, and online methods.
View: CNET News
But for me, paying for "software as a service" is unappealing.
And at the end of the day it's either spend $200+ or whatever for retail Office 2k7 and have that version for x number of years or spend $70 and have a newer version every year or so.
Software vendors seem to forget that MANY of them are taking this approach to software licensing - and it means that software ownership potentially becomes hugely expensive once you factor in your payments for Office, maybe a WoW subscription, an Xbox Live subscription, etc etc..
See my thread regarding this failure of an idea, albeit its regarding Windows 7 as a service, you still get a good insight as to how others see the whole model:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=627423&hl
I use OneCare and it works great.
I know where a lot of other folks will look as well...
Office Home & Student currently retails for about $110 and One Care is about $22 (both on Amazon.com) so it could be tempting for a lot of home users - as long as they understand they are subscribing to a service and not purchasing the software.
It could be a good way to increase One Care's market share and tackle Symantecs lead in this market - is that a good thing or not?
As long as it kills off MS Works I will be happy!
I know where a lot of other folks will look as well...
Office Home & Student currently retails for about $110 and One Care is about $22 (both on Amazon.com) so it could be tempting for a lot of home users - as long as they understand they are subscribing to a service and not purchasing the software.
It could be a good way to increase One Care's market share and tackle Symantecs lead in this market - is that a good thing or not?
As long as it kills off MS Works I will be happy!
So lets do some math. I can buy Office and OneCare for 110 + 22 + tax ~ 150. So in 2 years the SAS Office and OneCare will be 138. so basically once you hit that third year you are now wasting money. Just doesn't make sense to me. SAS might work if there was a major upgrade every two years but how often does that happen? I can't even think about how much companies would lose if they tried using this vs a volume license. Wasn't Microsoft trying to push that not too long ago?
Not only that, but the Home and Student version of Office 2007 currently can be installed on 3 computers as per the EULA. This subscription is a shaft.
Edit: Ok, according to Ars Technica, you get 3 licenses for both products... not so bad as it looked at first
Last edited by mezron on 02 Jul 2008 - 19:15
One Care will need to be renewed every year so just looking at the office part - release cycles are quite frequent (every 2 - 3 years) releases named as Office 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007 are normally available a few months before the year in their name...
This is only aimed at casual home users - not companies. If this works out well, then they will probably introduce a Small Business version and not an Enterprise version...
This is only aimed at casual home users - not companies. If this works out well, then they will probably introduce a Small Business version and not an Enterprise version...
The only issue is if paying yearly means you'll part with more than if you bought the two products normally.
Seriously? How much is the full version? Sounds like that would add up pretty quick.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123456 which is nearly $900 to buy.
I also agree that some people are surprised that Office doesn't come with their pc when they buy 'Microsoft' Windows. It can be hard to explain to people that they only have a trial or that they don;t have 'word' but 'works'.
I don't remember the ultimate steal being classed as a rental.
Anyways, this is kind of expensive in the long run. You figure if Office costs $149 retail ($111 on amazon now) and One Care costs $21.95... The $69.95 per year would add up to be more expensive. Perhaps if this was cheaper like $29.95 per year, more people would be interested.
Actually, do we have any details on what upgrades the subscription offers?
Actually, do we have any details on what upgrades the subscription offers?
My guess would be you'd get "free upgrades" for as long as you pay the yearly fee. That's how it usually works anyways.
And I hear lots of people saying they can just get Office 2k7 Home and Student OEM for $70 or something, but that's not all the office apps that one might want also. Like, it doesn't have outlook iirc.
*edit* I just looked, it doesn't even have Access. I use both Outlook and Access, so Home and Student doesn't fit my needs. So I'd have to go with the Pro version. We're talking even more now.
Last edited by GP007 on 03 Jul 2008 - 07:32
*edit* I just looked, it doesn't even have Access. I use both Outlook and Access, so Home and Student doesn't fit my needs. So I'd have to go with the Pro version. We're talking even more now.
Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote are included - which are all the average home user will need (OneNote was added to try and get more people using it...)
You could buy Access and Outlook on their own to add onto the Office version of your choice.
Have a look here for more options:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/suites/FX101635841033.aspx
It comes out to about $198 for that, and onecare still only lasts for 1 year. Meaning one year later if you buy onecare again for $49 it will come to an approx total of $247 spent, and for the other package would be approx $138 spent.
Office+onecare: $198
Total money spent: +$49 for each year
year 2: $247
year 3: $296
year 4: $345
"Equipt": $69
Total money spent: +$69 for each year
year 2: $138
year 3: $207
year 4: $276
etc
Keep in mind these are normal retail prices, and sometimes office will go on sale
Oil. Housing Market.No Job Growth. Layoffs. Closings. Recession.
Just keep selling it as a program without the subscription.
The average American spends more money on pizza in a year than any of these subscriptions would cost. It's not necessarily a rip off: it's a matter of priorities.
Outlook
For the average home user that's all they need. This is the reason for it all, who at home really needs anything more than Office XP?
For the average home user that's all they need. This is the reason for it all, who at home really needs anything more than Office XP?
+1
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.