Microsoft  has today released Office 365 Home Premium, bringing the traditional Office suite — Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, Publisher and Access  – plus 20 GB of SkyDrive storage and 60 minutes of Skype-out calling per month. The whole package kicks off at US $99 a year, with a Office 365 University version that includes the same for only US $ 79 over four years.

There’s also a “University” version for college students and faculty, which costs $79.99 for a four-year plan.

“Today’s launch of Office 365 Home Premium marks the next big step in Microsoft’s transformation to a devices and services business,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “This is so much more than just another release of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service with all the full-featured Office applications people know and love, together with impressive new cloud and social benefits.”

“This is a major leap forward,” said Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division. “People’s needs change rapidly, and Office 365 Home Premium will change with them.”