Jump to content

Microsoft acknowledges price increases coming for Office 2019 and Windows 10 Enterprise users


Karlston

Recommended Posts

Microsoft will be making some pricing and naming changes as of its October 2018 price list that will affect some Windows 10 and Office 2019 customers. Here's what's in store.

 

Microsoft has price increases in store for some of its Office and Windows customers as of October 1, 2018.

 

In a July 25 blog post, Microsoft officials acknowledged the coming increases.

 

Office 2019, the next on-premises version of Office clients and servers which Microsoft is currently testing ahead of its launch later this year, will see increases of 10 percent over current on-premises pricing. This price increase is for commercial (business) customers and will affect Office client, Enterprise Client Access License (CAL), Core CAL and server products, officials said.

 

Microsoft also is rejiggering how it refers to Windows 10 Enterprise E3 and related pricing.

 

As of October, Microsoft will be using the E3 name for the per-user version (not the per-device one). Windows 10 Enterprise E3 per User will be rechristened "Windows 10 Enterprise E3." And the current Windows 10 Enterprise E3 per Device will be renamed "Windows 10 Enterprise."

 

According to Microsoft's blog post, the price of Windows 10 Enterprise will be raised to match the price of Windows 10 Enterprise E3. Windows 10 Enterprise E3 costs $84 per user per year. Microsoft also is discontinuing Windows 10 Enterprise E5 per device as of October 1, 2018. Only the per user version will remain, which costs $14 per user per month, or $168 per user per year.

 

Based on Microsoft's blog post, I don't think the naming of Microsoft 365 Enterprise E3 or E5 will be impacted. I've asked if there will be any price increases; no word back yet. Update: A company spokesperson said the company had no comment on whether this means price increases for Microsoft 365.

 

Microsoft originally introduced Windows 10 Enterprise subscription plans (E3 and E5) at its worldwide partner conference in 2016. Microsoft's plan then was to use these subscription bundles to try to win over more small-and-midsize (SMB) customers.

 

Microsoft officials said in today's blog post that the changes are meant to create more consistency and transparency across purchasing channels. Other changes that will be on the October price list:

  • Establishment of a single, consistent starting price across all programs aligned to web direct for online services (OLS)
  • Removal of the programmatic volume discounts (Level A and Open Level C) in Enterprise Agreement (EA)/EA Subscription, MPSA, Select/ Select Plus, and Open programs (Open, Open Value, Open Value Subscription)
  • Alignment of government pricing for on-premises and online services to the lowest commercial price in EA/EAS, MPSA, Select Plus, and Open Programs
  • Delivery of a newly designed Customer Price Sheet that better outlines how a customer's price was derived (direct EA/EAS only)

 

Microsoft told its reseller partners at its recent Inspire partner conference that it was moving toward the goal of providing "one consistent set of offers, supported by a Modern Commerce platform" in this coming fiscal year. (New buzzword of the year nomination by me: Modern!)

 

By updating discounting policies meant to sell software at scale, Microsoft officials said they will no longer be "incentivizing them (customers) to standardize unnecessarily on software."

 

Source: Microsoft acknowledges price increases coming for Office 2019 and Windows 10 Enterprise users (ZDNet - Mary Jo Foley)

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 2
  • Views 1.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

It is a sure blow to Enterprise users who switched from Win7/8.1. With all those profits, MS & $h*t Nadella go money hungry and cheat users! Those affected should move to Linux & LibreOffice ASAP and stay away from Windows & Office.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Katzenfreund

It is my opinion that newer Office versions just offer hard to understand and find use for features. I'm quite happy with the 2010 version, while even the old 2003 was serving me fine on my old XP computer.

 

And I'd go as far as to say that I still don't see the advantages of the ribbon tool set over the old drop-down menus.

 

So they can charge all they like for the newer versions for all I care. As for update support, these are mature products that have been functioning flawlessly for me and I'm quite happy to leave them alone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...