3 ms·

> the subscription-based versions of Office 2013—which are sold through Office 365 I wonder whether this will be a source of confusion among consumers. The way

by nhebb 14y ago

> the subscription-based versions of Office 2013—which are sold through Office 365 I wonder whether this will be a source of confusion among consumers. The way I understood it, Office 2013 is the desktop version, and Office 365 is the cloud-based subscription version. But I see both marketed under the Office 2013 moniker. Between this and the Windows 8 / Windows RT, their product names are overlapping, giving these launches a muddled message.

coderdude 14y ago
I like Microsoft but branding is definitely not its middle name. One problem is that they try to place too many products under the same umbrella ("Live", for example). It can be difficult to distinguish between different but related product lines.
edwinnathaniel 14y ago
Don't worry, Office 2010 has been sold like this and I can assure you there's no confusion at all. For personal user, Office brand is still desktop app. For corporate/small-biz, Office brand is Office 365 + Office 201x (desktop version). There reason for this is because for personal user, they don't bother with Office 365 and for corporate/small-biz, they usually take their time to read the offerings (to get better values of it) or purchase them via partner-services who in turn will explain the whole MS licensing stuffs.
UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
They have to give Office 365 a different branding, since the Office suite that ships with it will vary depending on what the current version is (e.g. Office 2013, 2015, 2017, etc).
mynameisvlad 14y ago
I'm pretty sure they're trying to retire the 201X moniker from Office. Office for RT, and the 2013 final copies on MSDN, all lack year marks on the loading screen. It's just Word now, not Word 2013. Basically, they're trying to brand Office 365 as the subscription, with Office as the software suite, which can be part of the subscription. Of course, the box art from October still has the year: http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/1_office2013.png http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/1_office2013.png But I think that the subscription-based model will mean that there won't be a version you receive. You just always get the newest one, whatever it may be.

by nhebb 14y ago

coderdude 14y ago

I like Microsoft but branding is definitely not its middle name. One problem is that they try to place too many products under the same umbrella ("Live", for example). It can be difficult to distinguish between different but related product lines.

edwinnathaniel 14y ago

Don't worry, Office 2010 has been sold like this and I can assure you there's no confusion at all. For personal user, Office brand is still desktop app. For corporate/small-biz, Office brand is Office 365 + Office 201x (desktop version). There reason for this is because for personal user, they don't bother with Office 365 and for corporate/small-biz, they usually take their time to read the offerings (to get better values of it) or purchase them via partner-services who in turn will explain the whole MS licensing stuffs.

UnoriginalGuy 14y ago

They have to give Office 365 a different branding, since the Office suite that ships with it will vary depending on what the current version is (e.g. Office 2013, 2015, 2017, etc).

mynameisvlad 14y ago

I'm pretty sure they're trying to retire the 201X moniker from Office. Office for RT, and the 2013 final copies on MSDN, all lack year marks on the loading screen. It's just Word now, not Word 2013. Basically, they're trying to brand Office 365 as the subscription, with Office as the software suite, which can be part of the subscription. Of course, the box art from October still has the year: http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/1_office2013.png http://www.neowin.net/images/uploaded/1_office2013.png But I think that the subscription-based model will mean that there won't be a version you receive. You just always get the newest one, whatever it may be.