Microsoft Office lifestyle: making consumers more like enterprisers

At the Office 2013 event in San Francisco on July 16, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tried to make the case that Office isn't just about work—it's a lifestyle brand. Saying, "My entire life is on Office 15 and Windows 8," Ballmer played up the consumer-focused nature of Office, and its place in Microsoft's effort to make work more like personal time and personal time more...like work.

As we've looked at Office closely over the past few weeks, the paradox of Microsoft's Office 2013 pitch to consumers has just gotten more and more puzzling. Yes, Office has been historically marketed to consumers. But as Microsoft prepares to launch Office 2013, the Surface, and Windows 8, it is clear that Ballmer and his executive team are trying to make Microsoft even more of a consumer-focused company. In some ways, Microsoft is trying to follow Apple's lead down the path toward being a "lifestyle" company—but with a distinct twist.

The Office "lifestyle" is for workaholics.