Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft
Consumers juggling busy households, hectic work schedules and family responsibilities may welcome Office 365 Home Premium, which has been designed to help them be more productive from virtually anywhere.
Office 365 Home Premium is software giant Microsoft’s reinvented Office product line for consumers, a cloud service that includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access.
The service works across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs and Macs; and comes with an extra 20GB of SkyDrive cloud storage and Skype calling, for an annual subscription costing US$99.99.
“Today’s launch of Office 365 Home Premium marks the next big step in Microsoft’s transformation to a devices and services business,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.
“This is so much more than just another release of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service with all the full-featured Office applications people know and love, together with impressive new cloud and social benefits.”
Microsoft also announced it will now deliver new features and services to the cloud first, meaning they will stream to subscribers as soon as they are ready.
“This is a major leap forward,” said Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division. “People’s needs change rapidly, and Office 365 Home Premium will change with them.”
Other new releases from Microsoft
Microsoft also released today Office 365 University for college or university students, faculty and staff for US$79.99 for a four-year subscription.
Globally, the company also released updated versions of the traditional Office suite: Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013 and Office Professional 2013.
Office 365 for businesses will be released globally with new capabilities on 27 February.
Consumers can try out Office 365 Home Premium by visiting its website.
