Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Office 365 Personal underlines Office 365 Home's value
This week Microsoft added a cheaper option to its Office 365 stable. A one year licence to Office 365 Personal costs NZ$119, that's $46 less than the $165 I paid earlier this month to update my Office 365 Home subscription.
While Office 365 Personal looks like a bargain compared with the Home edition, for most people it isn't a good deal.
Office 365 Personal allows you to use the software with one PC and one tablet — for now that means an Apple iPad although an Android version is in the pipeline.
My Office 365 Home licence allows me to install the software on up to five personal computers and five tablets. I have the Apple OS X version of Office running on my MacBook Air and — after much pain - the Windows version running under boot camp. My wife and daughter both have copies of the program. That leaves me with a spare licence for testing review hardware.
At the moment I have the software on my iPad. And again, there's a review licence for when I test tablets. We could easily distribute the other copies around the family.
Either way, that means we have seven legal copies of Office 365 for $165 a year. That means each licence costs around $24, not a bad price.
There's a catch with Office 365 Home: it only allows home use. I work from home, so that's OK. I guess Microsoft isn't going to ping me if I use the software from a hotel room, coffee shop or conference venue,
Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
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