Office 365 users can label Microsoft Surface Pro as either a PC or tablet

People who have an Office 365 Home subscription can legally install the software on up to five PCs and up to five tablets, while users who have a cheaper Personal subscription can only install it on one PC and one tablet. However, Microsoft is giving owners of its Surface Pro family a choice when it comes to Office 365.

Technically, the Surface Pro and Pro 2 are tablets, since they have touchscreens and the keyboards are optional accessories. However, Microsoft has also priced the Surface Pro devices closer to laptop levels. Indeed, many buyers of the products consider them to be notebook replacements, rather than a substitute for a tablet such as Apple's iPad.

Up until this week, Microsoft officially labeled all Surface products as tablets only, but since many Surface Pro buyers are using them as their primary PC, the company has now decided to give owners a choice if they get Office 365. ZDNet reports that, according to a Microsoft statement:

We understand that the convergence of device categories can make it difficult to define some devices, and as a result, we have built in some flexibility for subscription customers. For example, an Office 365 Personal subscriber can define their Surface Pro as either a PC or a tablet.

Of course, the Surface RT and Surface 2 tablets already have Office 2013 RT pre-installed, so this decision does not affect those products.

Source: ZDNet | Image via Microsoft