Microsoft Releases Office 365 Home Premium

Microsoft Corp. today announced worldwide availability of Office 365 Home Premium, a reinvention of the company’s flagship Office product line for consumers. Office 365 Home Premium is a cloud service designed for busy households and people juggling ever-increasing work and family responsibilities. The new offering includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications; works across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs and Macs; and comes with extra SkyDrive storage and Skype calling —for an annual subscription of NZ$165.00.

“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 many new features and services to the cloud first, transforming the company’s traditional three-year release cycle. Now, new features and services stream to subscribers as soon as they are ready, keeping subscribers up-to-date while eliminating the hassles of upgrading.

“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.”

Simultaneously, Microsoft today released Office 365 University for university students, faculty, and staff at a price of just NZ$145.00 for a four-year subscription — the equivalent of NZ$3.02 per month.

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 February 27.

Time to Do the Things You Want

In a recent global survey,1 nearly 60 percent of people said they don’t have the time to do the things they want to do, and more than 80 percent said they could save one or more hours a day if they were better organised. Office 365 Home Premium is designed to help people be more productive from virtually anywhere and find the flexibility to do the things they want.

About Office 365 Home Premium

Office 365 Home Premium is available in 162 markets in 21 languages and includes the following:
·         The latest and most complete set of Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access
·         One license for the entire household to use Office on up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs or Macs, and get Office on Demand from any Internet-connected PC2
·         An additional 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage, nearly three times the amount available with a free SkyDrive account
·         60 free Skype world calling minutes per month to call landlines around the world3
·         Future upgrades, so you always use the latest time-saving technology
People can learn more about Office 365 Home Premium or try it free for 30 days at http://www.office.com.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

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1 Microsoft Corp. surveyed more than 10,000 people in over 20 countries.
2 App availability varies by operating system, device and language.
3 Skype world minutes not available in all countries. Calls to select countries.