Office 365 gets personal

Microsoft is placing greater focus on individual consumers of Office 365 with the launch of a Personal service.

Office 365 is a Cloud-based subscription service which bundles Microsoft’s Office applications with the likes of Skype (60 minutes of calls per month) and 20GB of OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive) storage.

The vendor said Office 365 will go live at some point in US Spring (Autumn in Australia), allowing individuals to connect one PC (either Windows- and Mac OS-based) and one tablet to the service for an estimated retail price of $US69.99 per year, or $US6.99 per month.

Final prices will be determined by resellers.

Microsoft will continue to offer its Office 365 Home Premium subscription for households (up to five PCs and five smartphones/tablets), but is dropping ‘Premium’ from the name. The change will take effect once Personal is launched.