Microsoft officially launches “reinvented” Office 2013 and Office 365 in the United States

Office 2013, which had finally hit RTM (Release to Manufacturing) back in early October of 2011, was expected to be released during the first quarter of 2013. Now, that day is finally upon us as Microsoft officially launched Office 2013 and Office 365 in the United States. Office 2013 brings a new touch friendly design for use with the company’s Windows 8 operating system.

“Today’s launch of Office 365 Home Premium marks the next big step in Microsoft’s transformation to a devices and services business. This is so much more than just another release of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service with all the full-featured Office applications people know and love, together with impressive new cloud and social benefits,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated. Take a look at the two promo videos below:

Microsoft recently put up a teaser site for Office 365 revealing the release date to be January 29th. For those in the United States, Office 2013 Home and Student will cost $139.99 and does not come with Outlook 2013. Office 2013 Home and Business will run for $219.99, and Office 2013 Professional will run for $399.99. Office 365 Home Premium will run for $99.99 per year (or $8.33 per month), while Office 365 Small Business Premium will run for $149.99 per year per user (or $12.50 per month per user). Office 365 University will also be available for $79.99 for a four year subscription. Microsoft will be releasing Office 365 for businesses on February 27th.

Office 365 Home Premium seems like the perfect choice, as it offers a $99.99 per year subscription with access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. On top of that, you can get up to five installs on your PC or Mac. Users will also get 20GB of additional SkyDrive cloud storage to save their files and access them anywhere, as well as 60 minutes of Skype calls per month.