New Office 2013: Bring Your Own Office?

One of our Enterprise 2.0 2013 predictions was the further development of BYO (Bring Your Own) trend. We said that with the own devices, employees will bring to work their own apps. Today, after the official release of Microsoft Office 2013, it looks like our prediction is coming true. Just look at the video: some guy is showing how he works everywhere with his own office. It's definitely his OWN office (Home Premium), because the enterprise version of Office 2013 will appear only in a month. But what is the reason of this phenomenon?

The reason is in the new MS Office licensing scheme. Microsoft doesn't want to sell Office any more, it wants users to subscribe to it. No, the one-time payment option is still available, but it looks far less attractive than subscription.

Let's compare. The annual subscription to Office 365 Home Premium costs $99. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. The price of the similar suite of Office Professional 2013 is $400. And, in case with subscription - you additionally get 20 GB of SkyDrive space, 60 minutes per month for Skype IP-telephony and you can install Office on up to 5 computers / tablets. But when you buy the Office - you can install it on one computer only, and no other bonuses.

So most users will probably choose the subscription option and will be able to install the own Office on the work computer (and small businesses will be able to save money on this).

The functional advantages and disadvantages of the new office we have already reviewed earlier. About the differences of the enterprise version we'll talk in a month, when it appears.

See also: Top 10 Office suites