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Microsoft Businesses IT

Microsoft Is Testing 45% M365 Price Hikes in Asia (theregister.com) 65

Microsoft is raising Microsoft 365 subscription prices by up to 46% across six Asian markets to fund AI features. In Australia, annual Microsoft 365 Family subscriptions will increase to AU$179 ($110) from AU$139, while Personal subscriptions will jump to AU$159 ($98) from AU$109. The price hikes also affect New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand customers.

Microsoft Is Testing 45% M365 Price Hikes in Asia

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  • Microserfs (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Big Bipper ( 1120937 )
    You're all just a bunch of Micorserfs, better get used to it, and turn the other cheek. Better yet, spread both of them.
  • This is going to happen elsewhere, too. And it's going to happen again and again. But I realize that all warnings will continue being ignored until the money-counting frogs have finally boiled.

    • by ewibble ( 1655195 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @12:51PM (#65085509)

      It's hard to feel sorry for people or companies that get burnt by this. Its not fraud or hidden in the fine print. Companies like Microsoft are basically saying here is our product we will charge you a fee to use it and we can increase that cost at any time. That is irrelevant of if you actually want or need any new features.

      Until people on mass refuse to be rented software, it will continue.

      • by djp2204 ( 713741 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @01:19PM (#65085623)

        This is the own nothing and be happy subscription culture thats being driven by Silicon Valley/the tech industry. Make payments in perpetuity, engage in micro transactions, and be constantly broke. Who wants these so called AI features anyway?

        • Society has deemed that the most important thing in the universe is that you have the ability to buy into the best set of opinions that money can buy, then tout said opinions as if they're your own, as if you think for yourself. Right now, the popular opinion is that AI is the future. You know, where AI solves all of the problems that are inherent in human nature... the same problems that simple computers were supposed to solve back in the 90s but never did. You better stay in line with the societal norm

    • Maybe I'm an outlier but... I don't know anyone that subscribes to Microsoft that isn't a business? You can still buy standalone Office if you really need that on a personal license (for cheaper than it used to be back when I was in school), and any businesses will be doing their own negotiations.
      • by Gleenie ( 412916 )

        And you can use LibreOffice for free. But Microsoft doesn't exactly go out of their way to advertise the standalone version. I would be surprised if, after this blows over more or less successfully, they don't make it practically impossible to get standalone anymore (e.g. technically we still sell it but it costs the same as buying a subscription for 10 years).

      • I have the Office 365 family plan and I think it's a great deal $109 CAD a year is a pretty good deal considering I get 1 TB of cloud space for each family member. Even if you don't count MS Office, it's cheaper than any other cloud storage service. Plus it's really nice to have MS Office available on my computer. Nothing else comes close to Excel.

    • by Askmum ( 1038780 )
      Here I am, still working on Windows 7 and Office 2010. I'm probably unable to post this because of all the malware and viruses on my system, but who am I to say that I really don't have any problems. It is only a money grabbing scheme.
  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @12:54PM (#65085517)

    Microsoft Is Testing 45% M365 Price Hikes

    ... Microsoft 529.25.

    (365 + 45%)

  • Libre office is free (Score:5, Informative)

    by i kan reed ( 749298 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @12:55PM (#65085529) Homepage Journal

    AND it doesn't have any useless AI garbage in it.

    • AND it doesn't have any useless AI garbage in it.

      Yet...

      • by ukoda ( 537183 )
        Given how long it took Libre Office to get an easy non US dictionary install support I don't think AI will infect it anytime soon and being open source we should have control over if it is present or active.
    • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      AND it doesn't have any useless AI garbage in it.

      And LibreOffice doesn't come with 5gb of cloud storage like Microsoft Family does. (wait, is that good or bad?)

      • by i kan reed ( 749298 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @03:25PM (#65086011) Homepage Journal

        How generous. For the cost of a hard drive a year, you get a half of a percent of one.

        • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

          How generous. For the cost of a hard drive a year, you get a half of a percent of one.

          Sorry, typo, you get 5TB of online storage with Microsoft365. For instance your phone will automatically back up your photos to your 5tb of Microsoft storage (which winds up considerably cheaper than iCloud). Or if you still rip movies, you can watch them wherever you are without needing to set up VPNs or exposing your home's SSD to the public internet. And it's safe against fire.

          I think that the 5TB, along with the office suite, adds up to a pretty good deal.

      • Not even one gigabyte? What year is it?

        • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

          Not even one gigabyte? What year is it?

          Sorry, typo, the Microsoft family deal comes with 5TB of online storage. (I currently have about 0.5tb of photos+videos automatically uploaded from my iPhone, and my wife has the same, and the Microsoft price comes out a lot better than iCloud).

      • by labnet ( 457441 )

        It actually 5x1TB, which why we and our 3 kids use it.

        • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

          It actually 5x1TB, which why we and our 3 kids use it.

          Sorry, typo. Yeah, this price for 5TB of online storage, including automatic uploading of photos+videos from my family's iphones, is I think a really good deal. Considerably cheaper than iCloud. My family is up to about 2tb of storage across all of us.

      • Is cloud storage useful? You can get local storage cheaper with external drives, with faster transfer times, and no one will be spying on it. Hmm, phone pictures... I don't save mine in the cloud, I dn't see the point. Maybe useful, but not useful enough to go with the known bad guy, Microsoft. May as well just back those photos up on the external storage device also.

        • Phone pictures.
          I saw a case reported back around 2022 or 2023 (I think) where someone had loaned his phone to his sister. She had taken her kids to the beach and had been photographing them there. At least one of them was not wearing any clothes (this was in Germany) and was maybe almost two years old - old enough to run around but young enough to still need diapers. She then gave him the camera back, he copied the photos onto his PC and from then on to a USB stick for her.
          A day or so later his Microsoft

    • by cfalcon ( 779563 )

      I'm gonna just complain about libre office writer now.
      It's "template based", which means that you have to adjust your thinking somewhat radically. There's not many ways to import or copy in templates (and if you go and ask on reddit, you'll get some ESL-ish weirdo who will softly accuse you of plagiarization instead of answering the question), and you will often find yourself wanting to edit the awful XML directly if you have anything even reasonably complex. Page numbers are a hot fucking mess, with a hu

      • by KlomDark ( 6370 )
        I use it a lot and haven't encountered any of those problems.
        • by cfalcon ( 779563 )

          Cool, if I ever have less complex document needs, or become you, maybe that will be helpful. But all of my complaints are 100% accurate. I never said that they would bother you personally, merely that they are real actual problems that make it way less powerful than it should be.

  • Bait and Switch (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chipperdog ( 169552 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @12:57PM (#65085547) Homepage
    Sure, after migrating a few organizations to MS365, mostly because that's what they are expected to have, after resisting it for nearly a decade - finally the licensing costs between 365 vs perpetual licensed, and having to maintain file servers and mail servers came to a wash over 5 years, but if MS makes such a price increase, throws that analysis all out the window.

    I've been trying to get organizations to ditch MS Office for 25+ years, but there is constant resistance, and even after trying alternatives (Star Office, OOo, LibreOffice, etc.), they never have a similar user experience as MS Office and users fight back at first frustration, and of course external entities they work with assume their using MSO...also when were running our own mail exchangers, any difficulty getting messages through was always our fault, no matter who was blocking it...again, everyone just expects everyone else to be running 365 or GSuite, so we just gave everyone what they wanted in the end, and significant increase in monthly operating expense, but like I said earlier, can make a case where they break even over 3-5 years, if monthly/yearly licensing stay relatively stable.
    • "Similar experience"? You mean buggy, right? The online Office at the moment is crap. The offline one isn't as much crap, but it's a really goofy design with bad UX and slow as hell. It's all been straight downhill since the peak of Office 95, every release was slower and less compatible. Ok, ok, LibreOffice isn't a speed demon either, someone needs to create unbloated office tools without all the pointless bells and whistles that no one uses. I never understood why Office took off; a mediocre word pro

  • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @12:59PM (#65085555)
    The faithful will bow to Microsoft's iron will,

    Meanwhile, there hasn't been a price Hike on the open offices.

    Cue the "But it isn't exactly like Office 365, so we have no choice! laments. While a whole lot of us say that is actually a good thing. If you believe that you have to use Microsoft products, they can extract whatever moey they like out of you, you will obey and pay.

    • Perhaps those pushing open MSO variants should actually listen to the gripes of the users and adopt their feedback into the product?

      • Perhaps those pushing open MSO variants should actually listen to the gripes of the users and adopt their feedback into the product?

        Frankly, I rather enjoy watching the faithful going through the BOHICA.

        I've used OO and variants for years now. Never stopped me from doing what I needed to do.

        • Perhaps those pushing open MSO variants should actually listen to the gripes of the users and adopt their feedback into the product?

          Frankly, I rather enjoy watching the faithful going through the BOHICA.

          I've used OO and variants for years now. Never stopped me from doing what I needed to do.

          Only negative I've run into with Libre Office is going back and forth with an editor that uses Word. There tends to be some formatting snafus when integrating feedback. But for normal, everyday usage? Yeah, there's no reason the average user needs MS Office, except that they've been told they need MS Office.

          • Perhaps those pushing open MSO variants should actually listen to the gripes of the users and adopt their feedback into the product?

            Frankly, I rather enjoy watching the faithful going through the BOHICA.

            I've used OO and variants for years now. Never stopped me from doing what I needed to do.

            Only negative I've run into with Libre Office is going back and forth with an editor that uses Word. There tends to be some formatting snafus when integrating feedback. But for normal, everyday usage? Yeah, there's no reason the average user needs MS Office, except that they've been told they need MS Office.

            And if a person needs to integrate seamlessly between Windows, MacOS, and Linux, Microsoft's product doesn't work at all.

            I have some people with multiple OS' and Libreworks perfect for them.

    • Actually, Libreoffice just had a 50% price hike. 0+50%=0.

      • Actually, Libreoffice just had a 50% price hike. 0+50%=0.

        Money back if you aren't satisfied, and no questions asked.

    • What do you use as a One Note replacement?
      • What do you use as a One Note replacement?

        I don't use One Note. And I've heard enough about it that I'll continue to not use it. I don't use Comic Sans font either.

  • by big-giant-head ( 148077 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @01:02PM (#65085561)

    Libre office works just fine for me and the price is right !

    • Too bad just about every "normal" user who tries to use it ends up not liking it, until you bring their MSO back.

      Also a full 365 implementation is not just the Office suite, but also email/messaging, file shares, intranet type stuff, calendaring/booking, etc.. When the organizations I maintain moved to 365, I made it clear they have to make use of every feature to make it pay off for what the cost is.
  • The Consumer Institute is lodging a complaint to the Commerce commision as Microsotf increases prices by 38% but makes it difficult for end users to opt out of MS365.
    • Re:And inNew Zealand (Score:5, Informative)

      by ukoda ( 537183 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @01:54PM (#65085713) Homepage
      This is an important point that people in the USA may not understand. Here in New Zealand we have strong consumer protection laws which are intended, in part, to address the power imbalance between individual consumers and larger companies.

      For example when my Pixel Pro phone suffered a battery failure 2 months out of warranty the supplier refused to fix it. Out consumer protection laws say warranty support must cover an amount of time that is reasonable for the type of product in use. So if a cheap $50 phone fails after 12 months that is ok, you get what you paid for, however if pay a shit load of money for a premium phone you expect to to last at least about 3 years. I got a free replacement phone.
      • ...however if pay a shit load of money for a premium phone you expect to to last at least about 3 years.

        If I spend a shitload of money for a premium phone, I expect it to last at LEAST 10 years. I spent roughly $200 for a Moto G Power in 2021, and it's it's still going. If it would have died after only 3 years, I would be upset and would vow to never buy such a piece of shit ever again.

        • by ukoda ( 537183 )
          Fair enough, it is one area where the NZ law is open to interpretation. So when arguing with a company about getting a repair or placement their idea of reasonable and the buyer's may be very different. At that point you can take it through a cheap government run arbitration process. I think wording of the law is something like It says "a product must last a reasonable amount of time", regardless of the warranty period. They do give some guidance on this at https://www.consumerprotection... [consumerpr...on.govt.nz].
  • by Gavino ( 560149 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @01:12PM (#65085607)
    It's happening all over the place. Adobe is another big offender. Hell, even Ubiquiti with their UNMS/UISP which was free on their crappy cloud for about five years before they decided it was time to cash in. It's technically not bait and switch. It's more like boil the frog. I call it Switch and Boil. You switch them over from purchased software to rented. Then simmer for a bit. Then boil! It also ties in well with the enshitification trend of commercial software. Throw some ads and personal privacy rapage as they're sweating in the pot!
  • Wasn't there a time when companies would make moves based on what consumers wanted? Who is asking Microsoft to increase spending on AI features in O365? It seems like the modern trend is to have a userbase, push them hard on forever payment plans, and once locked in, start shoving them around with shit like, "We're going to add lots of things you didn't ask for, and increase your monthly payments to cover it. You're welcome."

    Where's the "serving the customer" aspect of that business model?

    • For business subs, the C suite is all hot and bothered over efficiency gains in AI. The only folks I know that use much of it seem to be the sort that would be also easy to use it to consolidate and be made redundant by its output.
    • Wasn't there a time when companies would make moves based on what consumers wanted?

      Microsoft was never in that set.

  • I encourage as many Office price hikes as possible.

    Do a VMWare, guys. You don't need those 'deadbeat' subscribers.

    • by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Different customers. VMWare users are typically business with accountants and technical people. They will run the numbers and explore the technical issues around changing to another option and if it makes sense they will jump ship once they have their move plan in place.

      You may note that the prices rises shown are for family and personal plans. If they try that with business user, particularly large ones with IT teams, they will explore the merits of alternatives such as Google. Home users on the oth
  • To hear this. Well, not that shocked. Only a muppet could not have foreseen: Step 1 - get people on subscriptions, Step 2 - massively increase subscription fees, Step 3 - Profit.

    Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

  • As someone in an affected country I will start ignoring them immediately! (said the smug Libre Office user)
  • About 100 internal leaks I saw suggest that MS is getting basically zero income from copilot pro in o365 so they're splitting the electricity and hardware costs among the lowest paying licenses, despite not really using AI in them.
  • And, I gotta admit... it'd be a bargain even at twice that price!

  • I actually like Microsoft technology in the workplace, with the exception of Teams. Applications such as Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint are top of their game and each new iteration does seem to bring useful features.

    But a 45% increase for home users? That's a bit nasty because they have probably already built a nice captive userbase using OneDrive and Outlook email, and so they will find it difficult to switch elsewhere or cancel.

    I'm running Windows 11. I got a legal licence with Windows 8, for being an insi

  • by rossdee ( 243626 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @03:22PM (#65086005)

    Note that Australia and New Zealand are not actually in Asia.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Note that Australia and New Zealand are not actually in Asia.

      The term often used is Australasia, to refer to the fact that Australia, New Zealand and Oceania get thrown into the Asian market because they're not large enough on their own. It's like DACH in Europe (Germany (D) Austria and Switzerland (CH)) or Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg).

      As an Aussie (who's moved to Europe) price rises happening first in Australia is nothing unusual. Everything is more expensive there. So much so I've theorised that the country is surrounded by what I call the India

  • by pcr_teacher ( 1977472 ) on Monday January 13, 2025 @03:54PM (#65086105)

    The price increase is optional, but hidden by a dark pattern:
    https://www.consumer.org.nz/ar... [consumer.org.nz]

    • No Mod points -- but mod parent up.
      I was wondering if there was a way to get the 365 plan without the AI add-on and there is. Sneaky way to force every user to pay for AI they don't use. But the classic plan and current price is still available if you are willing to take a moment on your account.

  • Hint: There are other programs that do the exact same thing FOR FREE!

    Wow, imagine that!

    Or keep paying. It's really your choice.

  • Monopoly using monopoly power to force customers to subsidize their AI R&D.

    (Okay, acronym not catchy. Ideas?)

  • Running your whole company on MS, putting everything in Azure, all your people in Azure AD, your code on GitHub, your documents and email in O365, your communication in Teams. GL!

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