Office has a monopoly and has reached the upper bound of how much more they can sell each year. The only option to force number to go up is to rebrand it and jack up the price. People know how much office suite should cost. They don't know what "AI" should cost.
"The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office)" has got to be the worst rebrand ever. This is gonna be up there with Twitter's rebrand as a case study 20 years down the line.
The original "own goal" is that "Office app" was a Windows Phone 7/Windows 8 application no one used called something boring like "Preview" or "Document Hub" around the time OneDrive was still being called SkyDrive from the Windows Phone "Hub app" era. The app was basically just an MRU view of SkyDrive filtered to Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents.
Renaming that app "Office app" didn't do much to explain what it was for or what it was good at, especially with the confusion of "Office suite" and "Office app". (Some of that seemingly intentional with "Office app" trying to be a "Start Here" for Office documents.) I think that rename was worse than the new one.
With the rename to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app" there's actually new features and some idea of what the app is now for ("doing LLM things while wearing a corporate document fursona"). It's a dumb name, but a dumb name for an app that's a little less dumb.
Post title is a bit misleading. I see that Microsoft 365 still has the same name. The one-time purchases are still called Office 2024 or some such. It's just the umbrella android/iOS app where you can do all of office that's changed its name from "Microsoft Office" to "Microsoft 365 Copilot".
But still agree with the general sentiment that the branding is getting even worse than before.
In this modern world, companies no longer need brands that consumers know, since they aren't selling products. Instead they're trying to sell the company by showing that they're a leader in so-called "AI".
Right, it's not a takeover, it's a "slip-under" without any adversarial corporate action except from inside Microsoft itself. As it becomes less relevant more effectively than an outside force calling the shots.
Another one where the users notice instantly, and also means a lot to enterprises but the Microsoft executives seem to be so insulated they don't even seem to be paying attention at all.
This is the kind of thing that Apple and Google have been taking to the bank more every time.
With all the brilliant engineers who are still there actually putting in good code, why can't that pipeline be maintained at least to the continued benefit of users, if not better than ever without some kind of Ballmerizing still getting in the way at this late date?
Looking at the fundamentals, if Microsoft itself can no longer afford to maintain separate Office and Copilot efforts, how is a less-well-funded enterprise supposed to be able to?
Instead of accepting the nonideal combination, maybe it's actually a sign that it's the right time to choose one or the other since that's the opposite direction Microsoft is going :\
At least on a per-machine basis. I don't really mind experimenting with Copilot but I don't want it at all on an established office machine.
They've (all the big guys) invested vast sums into AI. If the users don't buy into it that's a huge loss which will be a black mark on whoever directed the funding to it. Thus it must be made to succeed. If it worked there would be no need to keep trying to cram it down our throats. My Echo devices used to be well behaved, the only ads on the audio devices being stuff quite relevant to whatever I had just asked. My Show always had ads, but on a third of the screen and never in the way. Now it's getting aggressive about pushing the Alexa+ stuff, more than once I've had to get up and X off screens that didn't go away on their own.
I heard on some podcast that there is such a thing as: "Microsoft Excel World Championship" and someone named Diarmuid Early won it last year. I would pay $2.56 to watch an Excel battle between a slop skipper and him. Money is on him. I am team John Henry.
Manager who chose Microsoft over the available alternatives: Main screen turn on.
Microsoft-labelled robot: All your files are belong to us
Microsoft-labelled robot: You have no chance to survive make your time
Microsoft-labelled robot (voice changed): We are the Bot. Lower your firewalls and surrender your data. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
Microsoft-labelled robot: Freedom is irrelevant. Self determination is irrelevant. Your archaic culture is authority driven. It has been decided that a single individual will be selected to speak for us. You have been chosen to be that voice.
Manager (voice changed): I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Bot.
Wow this is dumb. The reason I’m on Windows is because of Office. For my needs Office on Windows is the best—otherwise I’d be on a Mac or Linux. I use AI everyday and never found a use case for Copilot. So why rebrand Office, their best product after Copilot, their worst product?
They had Office.com, a hub website, and a desktop app called Office that was basically just a wrapper for said hub website. They also had a mobile all-in-one app called Office. As far as I can tell, those are what are being rebranded and made to default to an AI chat view on login, not Office as a whole.
120 comments
[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 77.3 ms ] threadWord -> Copilot 365 text app
Excel -> Copilot 365 spreadsheet app
PowerPoint -> Copilot 365 presentation app
Outlook -> Copilot 365 mail app
Windows -> Copilot system
Xbox -> Copilot gaming device
Renaming that app "Office app" didn't do much to explain what it was for or what it was good at, especially with the confusion of "Office suite" and "Office app". (Some of that seemingly intentional with "Office app" trying to be a "Start Here" for Office documents.) I think that rename was worse than the new one.
With the rename to "Microsoft 365 Copilot app" there's actually new features and some idea of what the app is now for ("doing LLM things while wearing a corporate document fursona"). It's a dumb name, but a dumb name for an app that's a little less dumb.
It's screwy and confusing but Microsoft doesn't believe in understandable branding.
But still agree with the general sentiment that the branding is getting even worse than before.
In this modern world, companies no longer need brands that consumers know, since they aren't selling products. Instead they're trying to sell the company by showing that they're a leader in so-called "AI".
just imagine all those poor engineers who have to maintain such a junk.
Another one where the users notice instantly, and also means a lot to enterprises but the Microsoft executives seem to be so insulated they don't even seem to be paying attention at all.
This is the kind of thing that Apple and Google have been taking to the bank more every time.
With all the brilliant engineers who are still there actually putting in good code, why can't that pipeline be maintained at least to the continued benefit of users, if not better than ever without some kind of Ballmerizing still getting in the way at this late date?
Looking at the fundamentals, if Microsoft itself can no longer afford to maintain separate Office and Copilot efforts, how is a less-well-funded enterprise supposed to be able to?
Instead of accepting the nonideal combination, maybe it's actually a sign that it's the right time to choose one or the other since that's the opposite direction Microsoft is going :\
At least on a per-machine basis. I don't really mind experimenting with Copilot but I don't want it at all on an established office machine.
The marketers will want to rename 12 with the argument it has to change before 13 anyways.
Then again Apple are just as annoying, releasing 26 in 2025.
1985: MS-DOS released. Users typed everything. Peak convenience.
1995: Windows 95 launched. Clippy forced assistance. Users thrilled.
2012: Metro interface rolled out. Tiles everywhere. Intuitive design.
2014: Windows Azure renamed Microsoft Azure. “Windows” dropped. Bold move.
2020: Office 365 renamed Microsoft 365. Bing renamed Microsoft Bing. Defender renamed Microsoft Defender. Branding masterstroke.
2022: Office brand killed after 32 years. Portal substituted. Heartwarming farewell.
2023: Bing Chat renamed Copilot. Azure AD renamed Entra ID. Creativity unleashed.
2024: Groove Music renamed endlessly. Finally axed. Customer loyalty rewarded.
2025: Microsoft 365 renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot app. Price hiked. Bargain.
2026: Copilot slapped on everything. Rebranding triumphs. Bugs eternal. Pure genius.
Office worker: Somebody set us up the bomb.
Manager who chose Microsoft over the available alternatives: Main screen turn on.
Microsoft-labelled robot: All your files are belong to us
Microsoft-labelled robot: You have no chance to survive make your time
Microsoft-labelled robot (voice changed): We are the Bot. Lower your firewalls and surrender your data. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
Microsoft-labelled robot: Freedom is irrelevant. Self determination is irrelevant. Your archaic culture is authority driven. It has been decided that a single individual will be selected to speak for us. You have been chosen to be that voice.
Manager (voice changed): I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Bot.
They had Office.com, a hub website, and a desktop app called Office that was basically just a wrapper for said hub website. They also had a mobile all-in-one app called Office. As far as I can tell, those are what are being rebranded and made to default to an AI chat view on login, not Office as a whole.