Microsoft has announced pricing and availability for its revamped Office productivity suite with small firms able to pay $150 per year for the service.

The company said it will now tailor its subscription-based Office 365 suite for home and small business users. Prices for the new suites will start at a $100 markup starting 19 October.

"With this release, we're modernising Office, and an important part of that is the introduction of new subscriptions," Microsoft's Office Team said in a blog post.

"Subscriptions open a host of possibilities, and subscribing to Office 365 will be the best choice for many - especially families, people with multiple devices and small businesses."

Office 365 has been available to enterprise users for a little over a year. Microsoft originally launched professional and enterprise versions of the cloud-based productivity suite in June 2011.

This year's launch brings Office 2013 applications to the suite. For Home users Microsoft will offer Word, Publisher, OneNote, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint and Excel. Small business users will be granted all those applications and the added bonus of Lync.

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