Microsoft today announced the availability of Office 365 Personal in an event in New Delhi for individual users in India. Office 365 Personal allows users to connect one PC/Mac, tablet and any number of smartphones. The subscription for this service is Rs. 3299/- per year or Rs. 330/- per month. Comapared to Office 365 Personal, Microsoft’s office 365 Home service can be used by five people in the home and there are other Office 365 services such as for universities for multiple uses etc.
Besides Office 365 Personal, Microsoft also showcased a wide range of consumer services targeted at the next 25 million new Indian users. With the advent of smartphones and tabelts, consumers are looking to do more with their devices and relying more on the services that power these devices. According to Microsoft, 60% mobile users are using the Office 365 services.
According to Chakrapani Gollapali, Country General Manager, Consumer Channels Group, “Today’s consumers are seeking a more optimized experience across their phone, tablet and PC and the combined power of Microsoft devices and services provides the best experience they can have today across all these. We at Microsoft are working hard to deliver unmatched immersive experiences to the next 25 million consumers, powered by our first and third-party devices and our capabilities in the consumer cloud space.”
Office 365 is the productivity products from Microsoft, which is offered as a cloud service. It is the fastest growing product in Microsoft history and has become a 2 billion dollar business within a short span of time. Office 365 Home is used by 3.5 million users across the world.
Office 365 Personal is meant for the individual consumer and one can have productivity experience with PowerPoint, Excel, One Note and more on a device of his choice. The software allows for up to two devices to be connected to the service. Office 365 Personal is available for sale beginning this week at all major retail outlets such as Croma, Reliance Digital and Jumbo Electronics as well as online on the Microsoft Store.
On this occasion, Microsoft also showcased a range of new functionalities in its existing services:
Consumers using Bing can now use Venue Maps to easily navigate malls across the country. The service displays interior and exterior maps as a layer on top of Bing Maps, complete with store names and precise location data. Currently Bing Venue Maps allows consumers to search 120 malls and 3 airports (Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi) across the country.
Skype group video calling is now available for free on Xbox One, Windows desktop and Mac. Additionally in the future, Skype will deliver group video calling for free across all platforms.
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