Slashdot Mirror
For the First Time, Microsoft Got More Revenue From Office 365 Subscriptions Than From Traditional Office Software Licensing (axios.com)
Ina Fried, reporting for Axios: Shares of Microsoft hit record territory in after-hours trading on Thursday, topping $75 a share, after the software giant's better-than-expected financial results. As has been the case for the last several quarters, strength in Microsoft's cloud business, including Office 365 and Windows Azure, was the key to the company's growth. Of note, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood told analysts that, for the first time, Microsoft got more revenue from Office 365 subscriptions than from traditional Office software licensing. Why it matters: Microsoft has shown an ability to grow its business even as the PC market has stalled, reflecting moves the company made in the cloud both since Satya Nadella took over as CEO as well as some that were in place before he took over the top spot.
Because they practically force MS-Cloud down your throat. They know you need MS-Office to be compatible with all your existing MS documents, yet you can't go to another vendor if you want reasonable desktop pricing.
Table-ized A.I.
It is precisely THAT kind of thinking that is going to possibly eventually *doom* us all to perpetual, rental of software, rather than ownership (perpetual license if you're picky)...and that is NOT a good thing for consumers.
Once the companies have you trapped in rental..they really have no incentive to improve and innovate now do they?
We've seen it with Adobe's Creative Cloud rental system....you haven't seen any truly breakthrough improvements to date. Yes, they roll out some nice things here and there, but nothing that is earthshaking. I've certainly not found I miss anything by still using my CS6 apps I bought.
And we've seen problems with Adobe CC...they will roll stuff out that breaks on peoples systems, and well....you're SOL till they can get an online fix out, meanwhile, you lose business.
There are also people who've lost out by having their registration get lost in the system or broken, and again...they are SOL till customer service can help, and well, I think with most of these places we know the terms "customer service" and "help" are mutually exclusive terms.
I can see it going this way with ANY software rental.
The best way to avoid this is to pay with your wallet.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
If we want good, open, free alternatives, it helps a lot to donate to the projects.
I donate to Debian, KDE, LibreOffice, GnuPG, and more.
Even for OSS projects, being able to fund developers makes a big difference. Put your money where your mouth is. Stop giving money to Microsoft, start giving money to OSS. At least the latter will respect your rights (*) and not treat you as the enemy.
(*) insert systemd joke here.
It is a lower pain threshold way of paying, but ultimately quite costly, especially compared to using FOSS.
The issue is that 98% of people who use office exchange documents with the other 2%.
So logically it's the 98% that must adapt and keep up with the 2%, right? Something is wrong with the logic here. At some point the 2% need to realize that the tail doesn't wag the dog anymore.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
And FOSS hasn't replicated it with any success in 20 years.
Are we actually attempting to portray Office 365 as just the suite of traditional desktop apps in this thread? Wow. The revenue reported here includes exchange online, skype hours, sharepoint online, security products, rights management, enterprise clients, yammer, teams and ton of other things that aren't even remotely included in open office. Sure, these might not be things you see value in, but this isn't a situation where a bunch of stupid people at running out paying extra for something that you are getting for free.
and is equal or less in cost when amortized against one-off purchases of boxed software
Maybe if you're upgrading every year? Which we all know is completely unnecessary. Office 2016 Home & Student is $149 and Office 365 Personal is $6.99/mo. That means if you keep your office version for two years, it is cheaper to buy a boxed copy than pay for a subscription. No one would argue you could easily use the same version of Office for TWICE that period of time.
This is rent seeking, plain and simple. They're trying to structure it in such a way to increase your cost unnecessarily and force you to make purchases you wouldn't have otherwise needed.