Microsoft will introduce a model new, lower-cost tier of Microsoft 365, its product family of productiveness software program program, collaboration and cloud-based suppliers, starting on January 30. Known as Microsoft 365 Major and priced at $1.99 month-to-month or $19.99 per yr, the plan will initially embody 100 GB of storage, Outlook email correspondence and entry to help consultants for help with Microsoft 365 and Dwelling home windows 11.
Current OneDrive 100 GB subscribers is perhaps transitioned to Microsoft 365 Major beginning January 30 as correctly, Microsoft says. And inside the coming months, Microsoft 365 Major plan members will get “superior safety measures” like ransomware restoration and password-protected sharing hyperlinks in OneDrive.
Importantly, Microsoft 365 Major is not altering the free Microsoft 365 tier. That’s proper right here to stay, along with the similar benefits it offers proper this second, along with entry to the web-based variations of Phrase, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, OneDrive, Clipchamp and additional, and 5 GB of cloud storage. Microsoft 365 Non-public, within the meantime, will keep $6.99 month-to-month or $69.99 per yr.
Microsoft 365 plans. Image Credit score: Microsoft
Microsoft 365 Major compares favorably by means of pricing to rival Google Workspace, whose Specific particular person plan begins at $9.99 month-to-month for 1 TB of storage, expert help and Google’s customary productiveness software program program (e.g. Google Drive, Calendar, Meet and Gmail). It’s moreover cheaper than Zoho’s Customary Workplace plan, which costs $3 per client month-to-month billed yearly and tops out at 10 GB of storage.
To coincide with the introduction of the model new tier, Microsoft proper this second launched the general availability of the Microsoft 365 app, which replaces the Microsoft Office app with a model new design and new choices. As previewed earlier this yr all through Microsoft’s Ignite conference, the Microsoft 365 app — now live on the web — offers quick entry to apps along with Phrase, Excel and PowerPoint together with file templates, “good” solutions, to-do file efficiency and syncing all through utterly completely different devices.
The Microsoft 365 app will launch on Dwelling home windows, Android and iOS later this month, Microsoft says.
Rounding out the raft of latest apps and suppliers, Microsoft 365 clients will shortly be succesful to view, deal with and enhance cloud storage all through devices by a model new “simplified view,” says the company. Starting February 1 from a Microsoft account, Dwelling home windows settings or app settings, subscribers can mange and enhance their cloud file and movie storage.
The funding in Microsoft 365 is smart. It’s a rising revenue merchandise for Microsoft, which has guess a whole lot of its future on the cloud and, by extension, cloud-driven subscriptions. In its This fall 2022 earnings identify, Microsoft reported that Microsoft 365 Shopper subscribers grew 15% to 59.7 million, driving revenue inside the agency’s Office Shopper merchandise and cloud suppliers part to $136 million — a 9% year-over-year improve.
In a doable niggle, licensed problem may be brewing over Microsoft 365 inside the European Union, my colleague Natasha Lomas reports, the place a present analysis by a working group of German data security regulators found that Microsoft nonetheless hasn’t able to resolve any of the compliance points they’ve raised with it. The working group’s substitute could crank up the pressure on Microsoft 365 prospects in Germany and elsewhere inside the European Union to reassess utilization of Microsoft’s software program program and/or seek out a lot much less compliance-challenged alternate choices.
