I recently gave a few price quotes for a client and in that process, I did some background research regarding the new Office 2013.

The licensing for Microsoft Office 2013 states that copies are installable on a single PC only, non-transferable. If your disk or motherboard fails, that Office installation was tied to the PC and you must purchase another.

I just don't know what Microsoft was thinking. As of last week, Newegg.ca was selling copies of Office 2010 Home & Student (3 user) DVD media for $144.99 and Office 2013 Home & Student (single user, non-transferable) for $139.99. If you ignore the non-transferability of Office 2013 and just consider the raw cost per user-license, then Office 2013 is 2.89 times more expensive! Then consider in the fact that should your PC ever fail, you would have to get another brand new copy for $139.99... The cost per user-license of Office 2013 could therefore rise to nearly 6 times as expensive per user-license compared to Office 2010 after your first PC failure.

Many (myself included) saw this as a money-grab and an attempt to force users to their Office 365 subscription-based service, a $99.99 per year subscription grants access to the latest Microsoft Office software for up to 5 users in a household. The pricing scheme for this is a little more reasonable per-user, but a static fee each year means that Microsoft inevitably makes more money... Say a PC lasts 5 years, then they're making 5 x $99.99 instead of selling a single copy of Office for ~$150.

Last week it look like Microsoft gave in to the massive outcry from users and announced an updated clause for the Office 2013 license agreement:

You may transfer the software to another computer that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner).

Well, at least that's a little more reasonable.