Quote:
Originally Posted by cc_in_oh
Sad, but I suppose I have to give MS some credit for still offering fixed-price versions when so much software has gone down the subscription-only path...
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They pretty much have to. As far as Microsoft is concerned, their customer is the Enterprise, with hundreds or thousands of desktops and laptops running Windows and Office and likely with MS support contracts.
The vast majority of those will be stand alone installations, that do not have to be connected to the cloud, with local installations of the software corporate users need to do their work. The number who will use Office 365 will be a small number of the total.
And enterpise users tend to be slow to update Windows and Office. Enterprise upgrades are complex and expensive undertakings, and productivity takes a hit when it occurs. Taking Excel as an example, what new features in any new version will be "must haves" for those that use it? My guess is "not many", and when upgrades will occur will be questions of budgeting and scheduling, not shiny new features.
I can see heavy power users who live in Excel and do stuff like complex financial analysis getting approval to install updates on their workstations because they've convinced their management they really need the new stuff to do their work, but they'll be the exception, not the rule.
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Dennis