Do you have an extra 150 bucks laying around? That's how much it'll cost you
if you wanna buy a standalone version of Microsoft Office.
You know, without paying those monthly subscription fees. Meanwhile, you'll need to pay even more
if you want an office license for commercial use. 440 bucks, just for one PC.
Even if you just need Excel for your taco truck or whatever, buying just one of the office programs
is 160 bucks. Holy cow!
It might be easy to assume that these prices are another example of inflation run amuck.
But it turns out Office has long been a very expensive product.
In fact, Office 97 started at a cool 499
when it first came out over 25 years ago. But even with these outrageous prices,
there's a very good chance that you've been using word processors for years without forking
over hundreds of dollars. Because for the average person typing at home,
plenty of viable alternatives have existed over the decades.
Before cloud computing came to dominate the tech scene, it was common for pre-built computers
to include some kind of productivity software,
whether it was from Microsoft or someone else. And even if you didn't get anything like this
with your new PC, you'd at the very least be able to use WordPad, a very basic word processor
that's still included with Windows 11. Today, of course, online alternatives
like Google Docs are available for free. And Office itself actually has a free web-based version
you can use through a browser. So why are they trying to sell you Office
at a king's ransom? It turns out Microsoft isn't actually trying
to sell Office to you, the typical home user.
Office is expensive, partly because its key customer base is, well, offices.
What may seem like a lot of money to you may end up being peanuts to a business.
Of course, no business wants to pay for software if they can avoid it, but an Office suite
often doesn't end up being a massive expense,
especially considering larger businesses often negotiate volume licensing
with Microsoft, meaning that they'll get a license for many employees at a discounted rate.
Moreover, compared to some of the traditional open-source alternatives,
the programs in the MS Office suite include a number of advanced features
that businesses are willing to fork out money for, not to mention that they get support from Microsoft.
And larger organizations often don't want to rely on a suite that's mainly browser-based,
as that's potentially lots of downtime if there's an internet outage.
Of course, we have to mention that Office primarily operates on a subscription model now.
Microsoft actually isn't even using the Office name
for the current version of the suite anymore, instead rebranding it as Microsoft 365.
It still isn't cheap. If you stay on a yearly plan for two years,
you're paying nearly the same amount as just buying a standalone version of Office outright.
But this also means that Microsoft doesn't really have a reason to make standalone Office cheaper.
Even if you pay more over the long run, $7 a month sounds a heck of a lot more palatable
than $150 up front. And unlike standalone Office,
Microsoft 365 also dangles the carrot of extra cloud storage and future updates
with their subscription service, as well as ongoing support.
And of course, Microsoft stands to make a heck of a lot more money over the long run
with a subscription model than they would if they just kept selling individual licenses,
which businesses may or may not choose to upgrade every few years.
So they aren't going to make the standalone version cheaper as they want to incentivize you
to pay for a juicy Microsoft 365 subscription.
And on top of everything we've talked about, there's a great deal of inertia
in the sense that many businesses have been using Office for so long
and they don't want to switch, especially when you consider lots of businesses
employ university graduates that came from schools that also got volume deals on Office.
But the good news is there's still no reason to shell out money if you just want
to turn your computer on and type. And thank you for turning your computer on
and pressing play on this video. Cause you watched all the way in the end and that's special.
Oh, now I tell you to like, dislike, check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions.
Don't forget to subscribe and follow TechWiki. But I just want to be in this moment for another second.
Wow.