Microsoft Office 2013 raises its prices despite major open source alternatives

Gregg Keizer | InfoWorld | September 19, 2012

Microsoft this week raised prices of its Office suite by as much as 17 percent and eliminated multi-license packs, all part of a plan to push consumers and small businesses toward new subscription programs, analysts said.

Office Home & Student 2013, a single-license suite that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, costs $140, or 17 percent more than its Office 2010 predecessor. The more feature- and application-packed Office Home & Business 2013, priced at $220, and Office Professional 2013, at $400, are 10 percent and 14 percent higher than their 2010 counterparts.

... the numbers made analysts pause. Osterman, for one. "For the average household, say with someone who does [office] work at home some of the time, this still looks like a premium model," Osterman said of Office 365's pricing. "I think Microsoft's going to be hard-pressed to sell this [to consumers]."

 

Open Health News' Take: 

For many individuals, homeowners, students, small businesses, physician offices, non-profit organizations, community hospitals and others, choosing any one of several high quality, free and open source alternatives to MS Office may now be more attractive. Open Office and Libre Office are just two available alternatives that are now being used by many around the world. Open Health News (OHN) made the switch to Open Office several years ago and we have never looked back.   -  Peter Groen, Senior Editor, OHN