Microsoft is apparently working on a consumer version of Microsoft 365, the enterprise bundle that includes Windows 10, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet spotted a recent job posting for a Product Manager for the “M365 Consumer Subscription” that will join a new team “building a customer-focused subscription globally for Microsoft’s various consumer services.”
The job posting doesn’t explicitly mention what this “Microsoft 365 Consumer subscription” will include, but the project is supervised by the Modern Life & Devices team, which oversees many different products. “As one of the company’s largest multi-billion-dollar revenue businesses, the area includes the Windows platform and ecosystem, the Microsoft Surface device portfolio, Office 365 consumer services, Skype, Microsoft’s intelligent agent in Cortana and search efforts with Bing, as well as the Microsoft Education Team,” the job listing says.
This new Microsoft 365 Consumer subscription may focus more on “prosumers.” This what Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Modern Life and Devices suggested when he unveiled Microsoft’s new “Modern Live Services” initiative earlier this year. The exec acknowledged at the time that Microsoft’s core value proposition is productivity, and that the company should try to make productivity more sexy.
One question we have is if Microsoft will also plans to include its own Surface hardware in the Microsoft 365 Consumer subscription. Adding the brand new Surface Go to the mix would certainly help to make the bundle more appealing, especially for consumers who have yet to buy a Surface device.
