Microsoft has announced the worldwide availability of Office 365 Home Premium for both Mac and PC. Office 365 Home Premium always includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications, and can be installed on up to five devices including Macs, PCs, and Windows tablets.
Users can access Office 365 for $99.99 per year, which works out to $8.34 per month. Microsoft plans to deliver new features and services to the cloud first, making them available to subscribers as soon as they are ready, rather than employing the company’s previous three-year wait period for major new software releases.
“Today’s launch of Office 365 Home Premium marks the next big step in Microsoft’s transformation to a devices and services business,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “This is so much more than just another release of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service with all the full-featured Office applications people know and love, together with impressive new cloud and social benefits.”
Office 365 Home Premium includes the following:
- The latest and most complete set of Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access
- One license for the entire household to use Office on up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs or Macs, and Office on Demand available from any Internet-connected PC
- An additional 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage, nearly three times the amount available with a free SkyDrive account
- 60 free Skype world calling minutes per month to call mobile phones, landlines or PCs around the world
- Future upgrades, so you always use the latest time-saving technology
More information and a free 30-day trial are available from Microsoft at office.com.
Microsoft has also made available Office 365 University for college or university students, faculty and staff. It’s available for $79.99 for a four-year subscription, which comes out to $1.67 per month.
The company also launched updated versions of its traditional Office suites: Office Home and Student, Office Home and Business 2013, and Office Professional 2013. The launch of Office 365 for businesses is scheduled for Feb. 27.
Still just in the rumored stage is a version of Microsoft’s Office suite for iOS devices. References to the suite have been found on Microsoft’s own website, but no confirmation has been officially made.
(Update: 01/29/2012)
A Microsoft PR Representative gave us this statement about Microsoft Office 365 on the Mac:
“As part of the [Office 365] subscription, you get Office on up to 5 devices (Macs or PCs) and right now, if you download the new Office on a Mac, you will get Office for Mac 2011. When a new version of Office for Mac is available, Office 365 subscribers will automatically get the upgrade.”
