Microsoft reacts: New price strategy for office software!

Microsoft reacts: New price strategy for office software!

Microsoft is under pressure and has now announced decisive price changes for his office software to avert impending antitrust penalties in the EU. According to insiders, there will be stronger price differences between the popular office package with and without the popular communication program teams. These changes are a reaction to complaints from competitors who had complained about the previous pricing. Teams, which was added free of charge to Office 365 in 2017, has become particularly important during Corona pandemic and is now an essential part of the world of work.

The new price structure stipulates that the office version without teams will be offered for two euros less per month than that with teams. The individual product team costs five euros per month, as krone.at reported. Microsoft has also announced that users of third-party apps such as Zoom and Slack can work more closely with the office applications in the future. These measures were regarded as "proactive changes" to "help to address these concerns in a sensible way", according to the VP for European government matters by Microsoft, Nanna-Louise Linde.

EU examination and outlook

Despite the new price structure, the investigation by the EU has not yet been completed, and it is possible that Microsoft must continue to expect a fine, such as arstechnica.com notes. The changes initially only apply to Microsoft 365 plans for business customers. Consumer, educational, US government and nonprofit versions of Microsoft 365 remain unaffected by these changes and continue to contain teams.