![Teams is being decoupled from the other Office apps worldwide, six months after Microsoft did the same thing for the EU.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/office_icons_01-800x450.jpeg)
Microsoft/Andrew Cunningham
Months after unbundling the apps within the European Union, Microsoft is taking the Workplace and Groups breakup worldwide. Reuters reviews that Microsoft will start promoting Groups and the opposite Microsoft 365 apps to new industrial prospects as separate merchandise with separate worth tags starting as we speak.
This can be a win for different crew communication apps like Slack and videoconferencing apps like Zoom, each of which predate Groups however have not had the advantages of the Workplace apps’ large established person base.
The separation follows an EU regulatory investigation that began in July of 2023, nearly precisely three years after Slack initially filed a criticism alleging that Microsoft was “abusing its market dominance to extinguish competitors in breach of European Union competitors legislation.”
In August of 2023, Microsoft introduced that it might be unbundling the apps within the EU and Switzerland in October. Bloomberg reported in September that Zoom had met with EU and US Federal Commerce Fee regulators about Microsoft, additional ratcheting up regulatory stress on Microsoft.
In October, Microsoft European Authorities Affairs VP Nanna-Louise Linde described the unbundling and different strikes as “proactive modifications that we hope will begin to handle these issues in a significant approach,” although the EU investigation is ongoing, and the corporate could but be fined. Linde additionally wrote that Microsoft would permit third-party apps like Zoom and Slack to combine extra deeply with the Workplace apps and that it might “allow third-party options to host Workplace internet functions.”
Reuters says that present Microsoft 365 prospects who need to hold utilizing the Workplace apps and Groups collectively can proceed to subscribe to each at their present costs. New prospects may have the choice of subscribing to both or each: a Groups subscription will begin at $5.25 per person monthly, whereas the Workplace apps will begin at $7.75 per person monthly and go as much as $54.75 per person monthly relying on the subscription tier.
Whether or not this represents a worth improve or lower is dependent upon the particular Microsoft 365 product you are evaluating it to; the Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise subscription provides simply the Workplace desktop apps and 1TB of OneDrive storage for $8.25 per person monthly, 50 cents greater than the brand new worth for Workplace with out Groups. However the worth for subscribing to Groups and Workplace collectively goes as much as $13 per person monthly, 50 cents greater than the present Microsoft 365 Enterprise Normal subscription.
Microsoft provides such a variety of merchandise and pricing throughout all of its enterprise, enterprise, authorities, and nonprofit tiers that it is troublesome to make direct comparisons with out extra info. We have contacted Microsoft for clarification and can replace if we get a response.
![Teams is being decoupled from the other Office apps worldwide, six months after Microsoft did the same thing for the EU.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/office_icons_01-800x450.jpeg)
Microsoft/Andrew Cunningham
Months after unbundling the apps within the European Union, Microsoft is taking the Workplace and Groups breakup worldwide. Reuters reviews that Microsoft will start promoting Groups and the opposite Microsoft 365 apps to new industrial prospects as separate merchandise with separate worth tags starting as we speak.
This can be a win for different crew communication apps like Slack and videoconferencing apps like Zoom, each of which predate Groups however have not had the advantages of the Workplace apps’ large established person base.
The separation follows an EU regulatory investigation that began in July of 2023, nearly precisely three years after Slack initially filed a criticism alleging that Microsoft was “abusing its market dominance to extinguish competitors in breach of European Union competitors legislation.”
In August of 2023, Microsoft introduced that it might be unbundling the apps within the EU and Switzerland in October. Bloomberg reported in September that Zoom had met with EU and US Federal Commerce Fee regulators about Microsoft, additional ratcheting up regulatory stress on Microsoft.
In October, Microsoft European Authorities Affairs VP Nanna-Louise Linde described the unbundling and different strikes as “proactive modifications that we hope will begin to handle these issues in a significant approach,” although the EU investigation is ongoing, and the corporate could but be fined. Linde additionally wrote that Microsoft would permit third-party apps like Zoom and Slack to combine extra deeply with the Workplace apps and that it might “allow third-party options to host Workplace internet functions.”
Reuters says that present Microsoft 365 prospects who need to hold utilizing the Workplace apps and Groups collectively can proceed to subscribe to each at their present costs. New prospects may have the choice of subscribing to both or each: a Groups subscription will begin at $5.25 per person monthly, whereas the Workplace apps will begin at $7.75 per person monthly and go as much as $54.75 per person monthly relying on the subscription tier.
Whether or not this represents a worth improve or lower is dependent upon the particular Microsoft 365 product you are evaluating it to; the Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise subscription provides simply the Workplace desktop apps and 1TB of OneDrive storage for $8.25 per person monthly, 50 cents greater than the brand new worth for Workplace with out Groups. However the worth for subscribing to Groups and Workplace collectively goes as much as $13 per person monthly, 50 cents greater than the present Microsoft 365 Enterprise Normal subscription.
Microsoft provides such a variety of merchandise and pricing throughout all of its enterprise, enterprise, authorities, and nonprofit tiers that it is troublesome to make direct comparisons with out extra info. We have contacted Microsoft for clarification and can replace if we get a response.