For customers who have been eyeing up Microsoft's new subscription-based email service, now is a good time to sign up. The company has decided to extend the promotional pricing for Outlook Premium for another few months. Customers can now get the sign-up offer until the end of June, 2017.
Microsoft had originally planned to cut off the promotional introduction on March 31st. Outlook Premium subscribers have been enjoying a $19.95 per year offer to sign up for the service. After the cut-off date, new subscribers were expected to pay $49.95, the full price for the service.
The premium email service is now still available at the reduced price through June. This is actually very good news. Like most subscription services, Microsoft will automatically take payment to renew the service when the yearly subscription ends.
Unless a customer specifically opts out before that time, the company will take the cash. Interestingly, the auto renew is set at $19.95 per year. In other words, this is not just an offer for the first year but is for life.
Maybe that is an error and Microsoft will change it, but right now it represents an excellent deal. Customers who sign up before June 30, 2017 will pay $30 less per year for Outlook Premium compared to those who sign up after.
Outlook Premium
It is not clear why Microsoft has extended its offer. Perhaps the cynical answer would be to say the company is not getting a flood of subscribers to the new service. Outlook Premium came out of preview in February. If the uptake has been slow, perhaps Microsoft has been forced to keep the price down.
Another likely possibility is that the company has recently extended Outlook Premium's availability to six new countries. Canada, UK and Northern Ireland, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, and Ireland all joined the US as accepted regions.
Microsoft is probably going to roll out to new regions soon. Perhaps the company wants to make sure those customers get the same offer as US subscribers.
