(Companies rarely reveal figures they're not required to, if for no other reason than that at some point those numbers could contribute to a negative narrative.) But with a 42% year-over-year increase in commercial Office 365 for the September quarter, and just a 10% boost in the entire commercial Office segment - including perpetual licensing - it's a safe bet that subscriptions again outpaced one-time payments. Neither Hood specifically or Microsoft generally revealed the revenue breakdown of the two models - subscription or one-time licensing, the latter often referred to as 'perpetual' licensing - then or during the latest earnings call. During a summer conference call with financial analysts, Amy Hood, Microsoft's chief financial officer, announced that during the June quarter, revenue for the corporate side of Office 365 had for the first time surpassed the revenue generated by traditional licensing of the productivity suite.

More impressive has been the payoff from Microsoft's software-by-subscription strategy. That 120 million represents about 10% of all Office users several months ago, Microsoft pegged the global Office user base at 1.2 billion. 'We now have 120 million monthly active users of Office 365 Commercial,' said company CEO Satya Nadella in an Oct.

Microsoft last week quantified its success at driving customers to never-ending payments for its software, saying that 120 million active users are on a workplace-provided Office 365 subscription plan.

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