Decoded: Microsoft's puzzling Office 365 roll-out

As promised, Microsoft has delivered the final pieces of its new Office lineup, rolling out several new global editions for businesses today. There are now a whopping 10 different Office 365 subscription options to choose from, and with the Wednesday launch of Office 365 Small Business Premium, Office 365 Midsize Business, and Office 365 ProPlus, organizations have multiple options for obtaining Office 2013 desktop apps, for Macs and PCs. The three latest offerings also bundle business-specific extras, including web site support, unified communications, collaboration, security and more. New subscriptions, myriad options Microsoft has succeeded in further muddying the waters for would-be customers with these last-minute additions to its Office 365 business packages. And to figure out where the Office 365 subscription options stand in the greater Microsoft ecosystem, we need to compare them to the Office 2013 desktop productivity apps.  As has been widely reported, the Office 2013 products follow a traditional software sales model: You pay a one-time fee, and receive  licenses for one-time-only, single-computer installations. This makes some of the Office 365 subscription pricing more  appealing, as you get not only multiple desktop installations and extra apps and features, but also full Office functionality on any Windows 7 or 8 PCs you might use in the wild via the new Office on Demand feature. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click he