Microsoft today announced a new version of its Office 365 subscription suite for consumers, providing a version for individuals for the first time. Priced at $69.99 per year, Office 365 Personal will allow for a single install of Office 2013 on a PC and one on a Windows tablet. That's a $30 savings per year compared to Office 365 Home Premium, but offers 3 fewer installs of Office.
"We recognize that there are households of all shapes and sizes and we're committed to delivering the right Office for everyone, whether that be one person or an entire household," Microsoft's Chris Schneider writes in a new post to the Office 365 Blog. "Additionally, we'll continue to offer our Office 365 Home Premium subscription for households, but we'll be changing the name to Office 365 Home."
That name change will happen when Office 365 Personal hits "this spring," Microsoft says.
I assume Office 365 Personal will work like Home Premium, er Home, in that you can actually install the Office 2013 on multiple PCs but have only two (in this case) activated at a time. Microsoft does note that both Office 365 Personal and Home will include the same subscription benefits. This includes 60 minutes of Skype calling per month, 20 GB of additional OneDrive storage, and an always up to date version of Office.
This isn't the right offering for me—everyone in my family uses Office—but I could see this being a great choice for individuals, especially anyone who sticks with a single computer and, possibly, a Windows tablet. Don't be surprised to see Office for iPad be added to the compatible tablet list, too, later this year.
Looks good!
