Microsoft Office 2013 pricing revealed, ETA is a "few weeks"

[Rick]

Microsoft Office 2013 is expected to arrive in just a "few weeks", according to long-time industry insider Mary Jo Foley. With the imminent launch of Office 2013 being so close, Microsoft's pricing has also been leaked. Price tags for 2013 will range from $139 for Home & Student all the way to $499 for Professional Plus.

Although not precise, this fuzzy time-table could put Office 2013's impending launch sometime next month. If true, this corroborates earlier rumors which pegged February as the month for a consumer Office 2013 launch. 

Interestingly, March was the month rumored to host Android and iOS releases. Admittedly, we haven't heard much about Office for Android or iOS since then. Also according to ZDNet though, Office 365 claims it's installable on up to five computers, including "select smartphones and tablets". Perhaps 365 will be the extent of Microsoft's non-Windows tablet options.

It was previously reported that Microsoft had taken away multi-computer licenses from its 2013 line-up. That means if you buy a copy of Office 2013 Home & Student, it can only legally be installed on a single device. This unsavory change was likely designed to nudge users into Office 365 instead -- a subscription-based, cloud-hosted solution which promises installation on up to five devices.

Microsoft Office 2013 Pricing
Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013	$139
Microsoft Office RT 2013 (Windows RT tablet version)	$139
Microsoft Office Home & Business 2013	$219
Microsoft Office Standard 2013	$369
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013	$499

With those prices above in mind, this appears to be the most complete list of known Microsoft Office 2013 SKUs:

• Microsoft Office Home and Business 2013
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT
• Microsoft Office Personal 2013 (Japan only)
• Microsoft Office Professional 2013
• Microsoft Office Professional Academic 2013
• Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 (volume license)
• Microsoft Office Standard 2013 (volume license)

With the advent of Office 2013, Microsoft will be pushing Office 365. It appears Redmond hopes to snag subscribers by offering five-device licenses alongside relatively low-cost, monthly subscriptions. Office 365 Home Premium will be $8.33 per month while the University edition will only be $3.30 per month, per user. With Office 2013 Home Premium costing $139 per device, Office 365 should be an economical choice for multi-user customers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/51356-microsoft-office-2013-pricing-revealed-eta-is-a-few-weeks.html

 

[Littleczr]

Ms Office is about the only thing Microsft is doing right these days.

 

[lipe123]

If I ram microsoft I wouldn't stop at adding the calendar year to my product, oh no sireee!

I'd sell a new piece of junk reskinned version of the same thing every 6 months! Office january2013! look out for our new version Office july2013 coming soon for double the price and the same features!
Oh also we will remove the tool bars and keyboard shortcuts so you have to click ****ty little blocks with your mouse and slow down productivity.

I'm sorry but there has been no office better than office 2003 and every single UI "improvement" since then has been absolute trash.

 

[RH00D]

If I ram microsoft I wouldn't stop at adding the calendar year to my product, oh no sireee!

I'd sell a new piece of junk reskinned version of the same thing every 6 months! Office january2013! look out for our new version Office july2013 coming soon for double the price and the same features!
Oh also we will remove the tool bars and keyboard shortcuts so you have to click ****ty little blocks with your mouse and slow down productivity.

I'm sorry but there has been no office better than office 2003 and every single UI "improvement" since then has been absolute trash.

Keyboard shortcuts work just fine with Office 2007, 2010, and 2013. UIs also have a lot of subjectivity. I like the ribbon UI a lot better in Office.

Since you seemed to be so concerned about price, you are aware that they have web-based Office apps that are entirely free to use, right?

Here is one feature off the top of my head that 2003 does't have, the option to export documents as PDF format. Office 2013 also supports running on the ARM architecture. There are plenty more but I'm not about to write a wall of text about it.

Sure, if all you want to do is write down text in a document, then yeah 2003 is great and always will be. Did I forget that nobody is forcing you to buy the new versions?

 

[VitalyT]

Don't you just love it how Office 2013 still comes with VB6 integrated at its core?

A 2013 product with a 1998 engine at its heart. Think Steve Ballmer on steroids.

 

[Per Hansson]

VitalyT do you have something to back that up with? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj229903.aspx

 

[Littleczr]

Don't you just love it how Office 2013 still comes with VB6 integrated at its core?

A 2013 product with a 1998 engine at its heart. Think Steve Ballmer on steroids.

Isn't VB for applications? my computer science teacher was saying is not the same as VB.

 

[MrBungle]

Don't you just love it how Office 2013 still comes with VB6 integrated at its core?

A 2013 product with a 1998 engine at its heart. Think Steve Ballmer on steroids.

Isn't VB for applications? my computer science teacher was saying is not the same as VB.

Office uses VBA which is not exactly the same as VB... very similar but its not quite as powerful as the full blown VB language. A competent programmer can still do a very wide range of things with it though.

 

[Timonius]

One of the hassles of these new Office suites is that there is the potential of Important-Employee-Has-The-Latest-Version creating an Office 2013 document that is not easily read by Not-So-Important-Employee-Has-A-Much-Older-Version-Due-To-Budget-Constraints. The big guys/gals always get the latest and greatest and -boom- it forces all the little guys/gals to suffer through or wait til next decades upgrades. I've had it happen to me and it sucks trying to manage data files over several versions of Office. I hope the document standards of Office 2013 allows older Office users to read the documents properly for that kind of price.

 

[Guest]

That's what converters are for. I know when vista and later oses came out during my time at school, it seemed as though people weren't well versed in the new ms office versions, such as 07, and didn't know how to save as a previous 2003 document and such, since that's what was used at the school. This happened quite often with presentations so sooner or later I noticed that some kind of 07 powerpoint viewer/convert appeared on the school computers. I guess that solved the problem for them.

 

[avoidz]

I still like and use Office 2003.

 

[Per Hansson]

One of the hassles of these new Office suites is that there is the potential of Important-Employee-Has-The-Latest-Version creating an Office 2013 document that is not easily read by Not-So-Important-Employee-Has-A-Much-Older-Version-Due-To-Budget-Constraints.

The Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack was released either early 2007 or in 2006, I can't find a specific release date.

 

[TorturedChaos]

One of the hassles of these new Office suites is that there is the potential of Important-Employee-Has-The-Latest-Version creating an Office 2013 document that is not easily read by Not-So-Important-Employee-Has-A-Much-Older-Version-Due-To-Budget-Constraints.

The Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack was released either early 2007 or in 2006, I can't find a specific release date.

As long as the Compatibility Pack keeps working with 2013 I'm happy.

 

[VitalyT]

VitalyT do you have something to back that up with? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj229903.aspx

Yeah, open an office 13 application and hit Ctrl+F11. Enjoy

 

[VitalyT]

Office uses VBA which is not exactly the same as VB... very similar but its not quite as powerful as the full blown VB language. A competent programmer can still do a very wide range of things with it though.

A competent programmer these days wouldn't bother with such outdated stuff. It is still quite of interest for virus writers though