Microsoft launched Office 365 Home Premium, the first consumer version of its cloud-based software subscription service, in late January. In late May, Microsoft said it had signed up over one million subscribers for the Home Premium version.
Today, as part of the company"s financial analyst meeting in Bellevue, Washington, Microsoft"s chief financial offer Amy Hood stated that Office 365 Home Premium now has two million subscribers. The timing of the announcement would seem to indicate that Microsoft"s subscriber based doubled at about the same rate that it took to go from zero to one million subscribers from January to May. Microsoft charges people $99 a year for Office 365 Home Premium.
Having two million subscribers to Office 365 Home Premium shows that there is indeed a growing audience who want to sign up for an office software service, rather than paying for stand alone software products. Microsoft has been pushing to move more of its software releases as cloud-based services and so far it would seem that the general public is moving in that direction as well.
Earlier in the meeting, Kevin Turner, the Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft, stated that Office 365 is now at a $1.5 billion annual run rate.
Source: Microsoft | Image via Microsoft