Microsoft has it will raise the prices of commercial subscriptions to its Microsoft 365 bundle of productivity apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Whiteboard, OneDrive, and others.
Formerly known as Office 365, this is the first major price change for the offering since its launch in 2011.
“Today we are announcing changes to our commercial pricing for Microsoft 365—the first substantive pricing update since we launched Office 365 a decade ago,” wrote Microsoft 365 corporate vice president Jared Spataro in a blog post.
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According to CNBC, the Office line remains the company’s top product in terms of sales, and while Microsoft still sells licensed versions of Office for use on premises, the company gets the majority of commercial Office revenue from 365 subscriptions.
New pricing
Recounting the evolution of the platform in its first decade, Spataro said that Microsoft has infused about two dozen apps in the platform, which has collectively received over a thousand new features in that time period.
Spataro writes that the platform has been evolving to keep pace with the user’s requirements. He illustrates this by pointing to the addition of communication and collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams, as well as security and compliance features, and Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation capabilities.
In terms of the new pricing, Spataro shares that at the low end, Microsoft 365 Business Basic plans will rise 20% from $5 per user to $6, while the highest-end version of the suite, Microsoft 365 E3, will have a smaller rise of 12.5% from $32 to $36 per user.
“These increases will apply globally with local market adjustments for certain regions. There are no changes to pricing for education and consumer products at this time,” noted Spataro adding that the new pricing will be applicable from March 1, 2022.
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Via CNBC
