Microsoft first unveiled its Microsoft 365 bundle of Windows 10 and Office for businesses and schools back in 2017. While a bundle of buying Office and Windows licenses makes sense for commercial customers, Microsoft is also looking to launch a similar bundle for consumers. Speaking to journalists at a media event earlier this week, attended by The Verge, CEO Satya Nadella gave some hints that Microsoft 365 will appear for consumers.
I already have an Office 365 subscription, and the idea of adding Windows to that certainly seems appealing to me. It’s easy, straightforward, and doesn’t require any periodic large purchases either.
Great. First it’ll be introduced, then we’ll all be required to pay for the “privilege” of using our own damn machines. No thank you!
Ohh don’t worry, You’ll always be able to get the 32 bit, limited to 1 task only version with lots of “promotional materials” bundled with all those fantastic pentium-based 4GB ram laptops.
The implication is that you aren’t paying for it already. Which is incorrect. The licence cost is hidden in the sale cost of the machine. And you pay extra for Pro and Ultimate features.
My assumption is that you will be able choose to not pay and have the basic/home edition and the more you pay, the more features you get.
Office/OneDrive/Skype/Xbox live can all be bundled into consumable sets for £10 a month instead of a cost of a couple of hundred every few years.
£10 a month?
A windows license bundled with your pc costs around 50€.
If you don’t give a fuck about its origin (and frankly you shouldn’t) you can get a windows license for 10€.
Not per month. In total.
“£10 a month instead of a cost of a couple of hundred every few years.” in what world is £120/year preferable to £200 every, what. 5 – 7 years, if not more?
I’m paying for an Office 365 subscription and that’s fine; I’m getting a product that’s worth several hundred pounds, that I can share with family members and that comes with 1Tb of cloud storage, and all for £89/year. That makes sense to me. Given that it looks like Windows 10 is now their ‘final’ OS version that comes with incremental updates, at no cost to, then I remain to be convinced of the benefits – to me, not Microsoft – of a subscription based model instead.
Ok, so MS might charge you $10/month for Windows and $10/month for Office.
Add that to your Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, Cable, phone and Gym and car and… and … and … and … (you get the point)
Suddenly you end up with a large proportion of your disposable income going in subscriptions. Something has got to break.
MS has signalled that Windows as a subscription service has been coming for ??? Well ever since Windows 10 was foisted on us with no way to stop the updates (for average users).
I bailed from MS at that point. I then looked at my monthly outgoing and had a WTF??? moment. Many of us are not seeing our incomes rising very fast yet these ‘services’ seem to think that we have an endless pile of money. We don’t.
There will come a point where this subscription model will break and collapse on its head. The sooner the better if you ask me.
shotsman,
I agree. The thing is most of these behemoth corporations made tons of money during the old days when tech was still growing rapidly. Now that the tech markets are maturing and stopped growing (few new sales except to replace broken systems), these companies still feel entitled to keep raking in the money even though most people aren’t terribly interested in “upgrades”. That’s why there’s a push for subscriptions, it’s a way to get relatively disinterested people accustomed to paying every month rather than paying once and then having to convince them to buy it again later. People are burnt out on these upgrade cycles.
You looked at your monthly outgoing after all of that? Maybe what has to break is the consumers idea that they need or are entitled to have Amazon AND Hulu AND Netflix AND Cable when they don’t have an endless pile of money. Just pick one, see the yearly savings and if you really miss that 1 tv-serie that you don’t have anymore so much, think if you really want to pay the 120 dollar per year for that. Or buy a 100 dollar phone with a 10 dollar prepaid and use it for a year or 2 instead of paying 50 dollar per month. Save enough until you can buy a 2nd hand car instead of paying hundreds every month for your monthly car payments.
If you want everything, want everything now, and want the latest/newest/coolest…you are going to need a boatload of money. And paying through a subscription (or installments/lease/plan) is almost always far more expensive than paying for something outright. The only plan that I personally use are the family-plan for O365. 80 Euro per year for 4 people including local installations of Office, 1 TB of OneDrive storage per person, etc is absolutely a good deal for us.
avgalen,
I’ve been pretty good at penny pinching, buying things used, lesser known brands, avoid buying food when it’s not on sale, etc. The savings do add up. But all of that’s feels like it’s for not when the big bills take up so much of our income: rent, food, education, child care, mechanics, copays, etc. At the end of last year a family member went to the ER and last week we got a $7k bill on top of what the insurance paid for the ER. All they did was run tests and refer us to other specialists for gull bladder surgery (they didn’t perform the procedure at the ER). How the f*@# is the middle class supposed to get by when the amount your saving doesn’t amount to squat compared to the costs of living? It’s true there are those who live too extravagantly and live beyond their means, however I’m increasingly frustrated with the way things are stacked up against even those of us who don’t.
/Sorry for ranting
I feel at this point, given the nature of Windows 10 being perpetually beta (even sometimes alpha) quality for end users, it should be completely free for all Home SKUs, and a marginal price for Pro SKUs (maybe $25). That would generate a heaping of good will that far surpasses the profit loss from their retail sales. They can even make it a stipulation that you tie your Windows license to your Microsoft account to get it for free, and pay the $25 fee for Pro to access the ability to make offline accounts.
They make the bulk of their money from Office subscriptions and Enterprise customers, they can afford to throw a bone to Joe User while waving their good will flag.
Thanks MS , but I last bought Win 8 on special for £25 and though I’d consider another Win 10 for the same £25 a sub or more is out of the question for a home user. Fleece Enterprise as much as you like but leave me out .