Microsoft keeps compounding this Office 2013 problem....

Forgive me for harping on Office 2013, but how Microsoft has turned this into a nightmare is astonishing to me.  Today we find out that Microsoft has quietly raised prices of Office for the Mac as much as 17 percent and stopped selling multi-license packages of the application suite.

The move puts Office for Mac 2011 on the same pricing schedule as the new Office 2013 for Windows. The price increases and the disappearance of the multi-license bundles also makes Microsoft’s Office 365, a software-by-subscription deal the company has aggressively pushed, more competitive with traditional “perpetual” licenses.

Microsoft has also disposed of the multi-license editions it once sold: A three-license package of Home & Student that cost $150, and a two-license bundle of Home & Business priced at $250. To buy three licenses of Home & Student would now cost a customer $420, a 180 percent increase, while two licenses of Home & Business would run $440, or 76 percent more than the missing multi-license bundle.

The price increases and the killing of the multi-license packs were clearly intended to steer consumers and small businesses to a pair of Office 365 subscription plans.