Last updated: January 12, 2023, 6:55 PM IST
The new plan will help the company get more consumers
Microsoft hopes to get more consumers on board with its subscription offerings with the new plan being cheaper than before.
Microsoft is introducing a new consumer tier to its 365 plans called “Microsoft 365 Basic”, which gets 100 GB of cloud storage for just $1.99 per month.
It’s also getting some additional features, which sit between the free option and the $6.99 per month personal plan, and will be available worldwide on January 30, The Verge reports.
Microsoft 365 Basic will be available with an ad-free Outlook web and mobile experience and enhanced security features.
Security features include data encryption for an Outlook mailbox, suspicious link checking, and virus/malware scanning for attachments.
Customers with existing 100 GB OneDrive storage will be automatically upgraded to Microsoft 365 Basic for the same amount of $1.99 per month, according to the report.
“Later this year, we will have a bunch of advanced security stuff from OneDrive that will also be available, including personal vault, password-protected and expiring links, ransomware detection and recovery, and bulk file recovery,” Gareth Oystryk, director of product marketing for Microsoft 365, was quoted.
In addition, Microsoft 365 Basic also includes access to the company’s technical support, including phone and online chat support for both Microsoft 365 apps and Windows 11.
Aside from the amount of cloud storage, the main difference between the $6.99 Personal plan and the new $1.99 Basic plan is that Microsoft 365 Basic doesn’t include access to the desktop versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps. Instead, basic subscribers have to rely on the web or mobile versions, the report said.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that it will no longer provide security updates for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, leaving users with the option of upgrading to a newer operating system or remaining vulnerable to security threats.
After more than a decade of service, Windows 7 was discontinued in January 2020, although the company allowed users to purchase extended security support, but now those extended security updates came to an end.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed)
