Microsoft will soon be offering a new version of Office at a lower price: Office 365 Personal, which will cost $70 a year or $7 a month. This version will allow a person to install it on two devices,"one PC or Mac and one tablet," Microsoft's Chris Schneider explains in a blog post.

Today I want to announce Office 365 Personal. Coming this Spring, Office 365 Personal is a new, great option for people interested in using Office 365. It's designed for an individual, allows for one PC or Mac and one tablet to be connected to the service and will be available for $69.99 USD/year or $6.99 USD/ month (ERP)1. We recognize that there are households of all shapes and sizes and we're committed to delivering the right Office for everyone - whether that be one person or an entire household.

Additionally, we'll continue to offer our Office 365 Home Premium subscription for households, but we'll be changing the name to Office 365 Home. You'll see this change when Office 365 Personal becomes available. Whichever Office 365 subscription you choose, you'll get all of the subscription benefits including 60 minutes of Skype calling per month, 20 GB of additional OneDrive storage and always be up to date with the most recent version of Office.

A Microsoft spokesperson explained that the key thing is that it won't be allowed to be installed on two PCs. One of the two devices has to have a touch screen. That means that Microsoft is cool with a Mac and a Surface. Or a Windows PC and a Surface. But not a Windows PC and a MacBook. I can't help but wonder if this announcement is a hint that the rumored Office for iPad is indeed coming in the spring. Because if this version doesn't work on the iPad, then $70 a year seems steep. You can pick up the Home and Student version of Office 2013 for just over $100 on Amazon these days and never pay for it again.