Microsoft to charge for office subscription on phone in 2016! Bait and Switch

[gerryf19]

In a remarkably short period of time (less than 30 days), Continuum via the 950(XL) has gone from the vast majority of comments being similar to "It doesn't apply to me", or "I'll never use it. It's stupid. Am I going to carry around an extra monitor?"...............................

to now folks apparently all intending to do their Excel Spreadsheet editing via Continuum.

I ain't buying it.....

I think you have it wrong. My expectation is I will almost NEVER use office on continuum. However, I don't want to lease office 365 for the one or two times I do have to use it.

Let's say I am at some meeting and I have to pop up a spreadsheet to show every one something. Whoops, there's a mistake! Well I will just fix that and....CRAP, YOU CANNOT EDIT THAT CELL without a office 365 subscription. What, you bought Office professional 2013 for $400 and worked on that spreadsheet all last week before moving that file to the cloud for this meeting?"

TOO BAD SUCKER, you should have bought office 365 too! HA HA HA HA HA
Love, Microsoft Office Team

 

[Laura Knotek]

I think you have it wrong. My expectation is I will almost NEVER use office on continuum. However, I don't want to lease office 365 for the one or two times I do have to use it.

Let's say I am at some meeting and I have to pop up a spreadsheet to show every one something. Whoops, there's a mistake! Well I will just fix that and....CRAP, YOU CANNOT EDIT THAT CELL without a office 365 subscription. What, you bought Office professional 2013 for $400 and worked on that spreadsheet all last week before moving that file to the cloud for this meeting?"

TOO BAD SUCKER, you should have bought office 365 too! HA HA HA HA HA
Love, Microsoft Office Team

Wouldn't you be using a work Office365 account if you are making presentations for meetings? Wouldn't that be paid for by your employer?

 

[Ian_Superfly]

In a remarkably short period of time (less than 30 days), Continuum via the 950(XL) has gone from the vast majority of comments being similar to "It doesn't apply to me", or "I'll never use it. It's stupid. Am I going to carry around an extra monitor?"...............................

to now folks apparently all intending to do their Excel Spreadsheet editing via Continuum.

I ain't buying it. In fact, I think the vast majority of folks that really WILL actually be using Continuum to be "productive like a boss", already have licensed Office 365. (Or certainly will choose to)

Notice I make no claim to the fairness or not of this policy. I am only implying that most of the gnashing of teeth isn't by people who are going to use Continuum for this anyway. Instead, it's just some stance on some principle. (Which I admittedly don't share)

I personally do not see Continuum as a game changer (at least in many years) but it was at least "on the positive side". Without it W10M has only live tiles left as something the competition does not have (out of the box).

I guess (as you guess I am wrong) that freely giving away Continuum as a fully working feature would at least be something that could raise some interest for windows phones.
With less than 2% market share and many customers already having 365 (private or at work) I guess the cost of leaving this a feature untouched would have cost Microsoft less than what this removal of features will damage W10M.

Can you see any reasons why the 98% that today do not choose WP/W10M would change their mind?? Is there anything left in W10M that would make it sane for any customer already invested in Google play/Apple store to choose W10M?
Universal apps? I think that is BS compared to what 98% already are invested in.

 

[StaticXCC]

I have and will always have Office365 so this doesn't matter to me BUT maybe someone can explain to me just how a phone using continuum knows the physical dimensions of the screen that's connected. It would seem to me that if the free office stopped working over Continuum when connected to a 10" screen it would be in violation of the policy of not charging for small screen sizes AND if the device can't tell the physical size of the attached monitor it might not be legal to prevent Office from working with the current wording. I believe some/most devices today do make the model name available to systems they are attached to so its POSSIBLE Microsoft could do some sort of diagonal measurement lookup based on the device name for those devices.

Serious question.... do people really plan to use continuum on a s teen less than 10 inches? heck, all thought the point of continuum was so you could output your phone onto a larger monitor or tv. Outputting on a screen less than 10inches, I'd you can even find an external display that size that works with the dock... seems entirely redundant and probably why Microsoft made office 365 cost a subscription on continuum... because a larger display is the entire point of using it.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android, Samsung Note 4

 

[Krystianpants]

I get your point. But if using Office via Continuum is appealing enough to a potential customer, they WILL "be drawn to Windows 10 mobile"

Nobody is going to change their platform for office. Most people using phones are average consumers. Maybe ms should make all apps free and developers should too. Yeah that will draw users..... Mobile phones thrive because developers make money. I can do quite a lot on my xl without a big screen. You can even connect a mouse and keyboard. It's free on the phone, enjoy it. This is the whole problem with windows phone and why developers leave. Everyone expects things to be free. Which is why selling cheap phones didn't work for ms. Cheap phones are purchased by cheap people.

 

[Krystianpants]

I think you have it wrong. My expectation is I will almost NEVER use office on continuum. However, I don't want to lease office 365 for the one or two times I do have to use it.

Let's say I am at some meeting and I have to pop up a spreadsheet to show every one something. Whoops, there's a mistake! Well I will just fix that and....CRAP, YOU CANNOT EDIT THAT CELL without a office 365 subscription. What, you bought Office professional 2013 for $400 and worked on that spreadsheet all last week before moving that file to the cloud for this meeting?"

TOO BAD SUCKER, you should have bought office 365 too! HA HA HA HA HA
Love, Microsoft Office Team

You should have came prepared. I would fire you for blaming something else.

 

[StevoPhilo]

Nobody is going to change their platform for office. Most people using phones are average consumers. Maybe ms should make all apps free and developers should too. Yeah that will draw users..... Mobile phones thrive because developers make money. I can do quite a lot on my xl without a big screen. You can even connect a mouse and keyboard. It's free on the phone, enjoy it. This is the whole problem with windows phone and why developers leave. Everyone expects things to be free. Which is why selling cheap phones didn't work for ms. Cheap phones are purchased by cheap people.

The problem is your average user probably won't know that they need 365 cause nothing ever really mentioned that they need to buy 365 for the phone. In fact office for WP was always free. Why does it cost to project for a mouse and keyboard friendly interface. I think it's silly.

So where do I find a 9 inch display to avoid this cost? I guarantee it's not about the size of the screen, but about the feature itself.

 

[Krystianpants]

The problem is your average user probably won't know that they need 365 cause nothing ever really mentioned that they need to buy 365 for the phone. In fact office for WP was always free. Why does it cost to project for a mouse and keyboard friendly interface. I think it's silly.

So where do I find a 9 inch display to avoid this cost? I guarantee it's not about the size of the screen, but about the feature itself.

Yes free for phones. And it still is. And yes it's the feature, as was mentioned in the footnotes of the 950/950xl in the MS store.

Continuum lets you use desktop versions of apps, but you still need those apps and the features that would come with the desktop version. You're actually running the desktop version. The same way you would run it on the desktop. You can carry your laptop around instead, but then you need the subscription anyways. So this just makes things more convenient. In a world where MS is trying to create a new paradigm where phones will become both your phone and computer, they would make no money if all of a sudden everyone was using phones in the future and had free services. They make way more money from office/cloud stuff than they would even if they had 40% market share for windows.


Sounds pretty simple to me. When I bought the lumia 830, i had those office apps. I didn't know they were free or full featured, I don't really use them. People that use this stuff usually pay for it. 7/month is not expensive and they can cancel for a few months here and there if they don't need to use it. There's no contract, it's a monthly service.

Just buy one less sandwich that month.

 

[StevoPhilo]

Yes free for phones. And it still is. And yes it's the feature, as was mentioned in the footnotes of the 950/950xl in the MS store.

Continuum lets you use desktop versions of apps, but you still need those apps and the features that would come with the desktop version. You're actually running the desktop version. The same way you would run it on the desktop. You can carry your laptop around instead, but then you need the subscription anyways. So this just makes things more convenient. In a world where MS is trying to create a new paradigm where phones will become both your phone and computer, they would make no money if all of a sudden everyone was using phones in the future and had free services. They make way more money from office/cloud stuff than they would even if they had 40% market share for windows.


Sounds pretty simple to me. When I bought the lumia 830, i had those office apps. I didn't know they were free or full featured, I don't really use them. People that use this stuff usually pay for it. 7/month is not expensive and they can cancel for a few months here and there if they don't need to use it. There's no contract, it's a monthly service.

Just buy one less sandwich that month.

I get that they make more money on the subscription and that in the end it's all about a company making money, but their problem is to even get people onto the WM10 platform in the first place.
People rely on using office in their day to day work, but they still may prefer the convenience and the traditional method of buying the license once and keeping it for many years. Which now begs the question. Does carrying a 2-in-1 laptop really make it that much more difficult than carrying the phone, the dock, keyboard and mouse? Is it really that much more portable to carry 4 things around rather than carrying 1 machine with a cable?

Obviously yes it is form factor and preference once again, but the whole point of a 2-in-1 was to eliminate carrying multiple devices and continuum takes a step back in that. Now you also NEED the subscription to even use that feature!. I think for most people it will be easier to buy a 1 time license, install on the laptop, plug it out to a larger display and be done. Some may disagree and it is going to depend on usage and value to the customer, but at the end of the day I wouldn't willingly pay for a subscription just for Continuum.

To each their own. I like 365, but it's not for everyone and it's not the bees knees.

Also it isn't 7 a month unless you pay a full year upfront. To cancel and re-subscribe it'd be 10 dollars a month.

 

[bilemke]

Seen it already, Office on Continuum, in person. Comes down to that if it is used for "business" or a as a "private consumer/user, or home use if you want to call it that", $7-10 per month for the apps we see today on Windows 10 Mobile won't fly. They are, even in Continuuum mode, not the same apps you get in Office365 on the x86/x64 full desktop versions of the OS/apps.

As others have said, I see it as a handy feature fro my personal phone. I actually see more value in business use fro the Continuum support + RDP client or other remote app/session client. Like Citrix support/etc for remote control. But on a home (not business) use case, these apps (Office Apps) should remain free and not just as "viewers" but the basic editing thye have evolved to be able to handle.

 

[gerryf19]

Wouldn't you be using a work Office365 account if you are making presentations for meetings? Wouldn't that be paid for by your employer?

No. I am in business for myself and have purchased a copy of office outright. Not everyone works in a large corporation with 365 subscriptions.

And, that is beside the point. In all the presentations I have seen of continuum--and it is well over a dozen--and in all the articles I have read, this has never been mentioned once. It has always been, check out this phone, check out continuum and look, it scales up to the full screen view when connected to a large monitor.

Think of how useful that will be!

Never. Not once, has anyone mentioned an office subscription is required. Never.

 

[HeyCori]

Maybe you can use Office online on Edge. That should still be free.

Just wanted to say that Office Online is a very underrated feature. I don't know how well Continuum can handle Office Online, but it's definitely an option for those that still want to edit on the go but don't want to pay for 365.

 

[N_LaRUE]

No. I am in business for myself and have purchased a copy of office outright. Not everyone works in a large corporation with 365 subscriptions.

Not all corporations use 365 subscriptions either they licence all their software. Each licence is different depending on the software.

I do have to ask a question though. Why do you prefer to buy the software rather than subscribe? Wouldn't it make more sense from a business perspective to have a subscription? Is it more beneficial to buy? Does one have a better advantage than the other?

I can understand the consumer mindset of wanting to 'own' something but I don't quite understand that position from a business perspective.

Though I get where you're coming from that no mention of a subscription was indicated by MS for Continuum purposes it does however fall into their 'devices with larger screens'. When you use Continuum you are using a larger screen.

So though they have made a big deal out of the whole Office with Continuum it's not surprising that they forget to mention the subscription. It's not the first time MS has not been forth coming with their advertising.

No I'm not forgiving them or making excuses but they have made a big point about the screen size and I guess they thought people would understand that with Continuum.

 

[DavidinCT]

I am puzzled by the ignorance many people have about business and economics. News flash: People and companies need to be paid. It isn't magic. Everything can't be free. What kind of person asks for charity? If businesses and app developers could make good money on Windows Phone apps, no matter how many phones were sold, they would flock to the platform. Simple economics. Isn't crying "I want it to be free or I'll go home." childish.
- Rant over. Thank you for reading.

Best Wishes.

I am also puzzled by the ignorance of posts like this. Now, Office 365 gives you a full install of Office 2016 as part of the terms. Do you get FULL office 2016 with Continuum ? No, it's a mobile version, stripped down on features that would get on a full package.

So if you dont use Office at home and your only paying for Office 365 to use on it on Continuum. You are getting short changed, your not getting the full program that your paying for.

No question this should of been PUBLIC known BEFORE the 950 and 950XL was sold, it should of been labeled on the back of the box of the phone and it should of been listed on the web site and also said on the public annocement of the feature. This would be EXACTLY as the OP has said, a clear bait and switch. Yea, companies need to make money but, not like this.

If you purchaced something, knowing you will get a feature, then after you buy it, they change the TERMS of it, wouldn't you be upset ? I know I would be freaking ticked off. It sounds like something that could bring up a class action lawsuit if you look at it that way.

It's almost like buying that new car, you order it with lots of features including built in GPS. You get the car, and you find out you have a monthly fee to use it, something that you was not told about and was not on any of the paperwork you signed.

Then we ALSO have the fact that Windows Phone is sitting with around 2.5% marketshare in the US. WOW coool feature on a new phone, I might be able to use this, maybe I'll try WP over my current iOS device....Oh, wait, I need to pay a yearly fee to use software on my phone ? Nah, Microsoft office on my iPhone or iPad mini is free.

No question it's a bait and switch tactic from Microsoft, I know then didn't mean to do it like that but, CLEARLY that is how it looks.

No. I am in business for myself and have purchased a copy of office outright. Not everyone works in a large corporation with 365 subscriptions.

And, that is beside the point. In all the presentations I have seen of continuum--and it is well over a dozen--and in all the articles I have read, this has never been mentioned once. It has always been, check out this phone, check out continuum and look, it scales up to the full screen view when connected to a large monitor.

Think of how useful that will be!

Never. Not once, has anyone mentioned an office subscription is required. Never.

EXACTLY the problem here.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Oh, wait, I need to pay a yearly fee to use software on my phone ? Nah, Microsoft office on my iPad is free..

Buzz!

Wrong. Office on Android and iPad is not free. Please try again.

When you finally come up with a coherent and well researched answer I'll be ready to listen. I don't like BS.

 

[DavidinCT]

Buzz!

Wrong. Office on Android and iPad is not free. Please try again.

When you finally come up with a coherent and well researched answer I'll be ready to listen. I don't like BS.

Ok, your right, my mistake, FIXED? So partly valid. Everything else I said is clearly valid.

So is that all you read ? So you can just flame or troll about it ? Good job and really helps to this subject... Clearly a bait and switch by Microsoft...

 

[Redn2000]

I'm curious about this, I bought office and now have it on my computer. It's not a subscription, so would I not be able to use office on continuum even though I have it? I'm confused by this because I know that office is linked to your account, so is there a way to log in?

 

[N_LaRUE]

Ok, your right, my mistake, FIXED? So partly valid. Everything else I said is clearly valid.

So is that all you read ? So you can just flame or troll about it ? Good job and really helps to this subject... Clearly a bait and switch by Microsoft...

I don't troll. Nor do I flame.

People on the internet (this forum) get upset for the silliest things. To me this is one of them. You have free Office on your mobile. You don't have it on Continuum. Oh boo hoo.

If paying for Office 365 on Contiuum is going to stop people from using WP then MS has completely lost the plot. It's obvious that MS is targeting business use of Continuum over personal use. But then I own Office 365 so this wouldn't really be an issue for me.

Bait and switch is the idea of getting something for free and then having to pay. Nowhere has cost been mentioned with Office and Continuum one way or the other. People have just assumed. To me that's not bait and switch. That's just lack of transparency.

But we're just going on about Office. Far as I know other Continuum apps are free? Or am I assuming there isn't any other apps worthwhile of Continuum and it really is a niche thing that no one will use?

 

[N_LaRUE]

I'm curious about this, I bought office and now have it on my computer. It's not a subscription, so would I not be able to use office on continuum even though I have it? I'm confused by this because I know that office is linked to your account, so is there a way to log in?

I'd personally ask MS that question but to put it into perspective.

A Office 365 subscription gives you the ability to put it on your devices (tablets and phones). Whereas buying a single licence does not.

So I'm guessing no but I haven't found a real answer to that question.

 

[Redn2000]

I'd personally ask MS that question but to put it into perspective.

A Office 365 subscription gives you the ability to put it on your devices (tablets and phones). Whereas buying a single licence does not.

So I'm guessing no but I haven't found a real answer to that question.

Thanks, I'll definitely have to ask when I look at new phones when my contract is up.