For individuals or businesses that do not want to use Microsoft with the Microsoft 365 subscription, the latest one-time purchase version is still Office 2019 for Mac (originally launched in 2018). Now the company has revealed that the successor, Office 2021, will launch somewhere “later this year”, along with some details on what to expect.
There are two new alternatives to the cloud version of Office / Microsoft 365 for Mac and Windows this year – a consumer / small business Office 2021 and a commercial Office 2021 for larger businesses and other organizations (via The Verge).
Microsoft has not yet fully revealed what changes and new features Office 2021 will bring, but it seems that the software is generally very similar to the 2019 version.
The Verge does say that the new commercial version, Office Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) “should include things like dark mode support, accessibility enhancements and features like Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel.” And add that the consumer office 2021 should too.
But in general, it looks like Microsoft will continue the trend of bringing the latest new features to Office 365 subscribers first for Office 365.
Microsoft is also changing the support window for Office 2021 LTSC after five years with prices rising by 10%, and prices for the consumer version will remain the same:
Office LTSC has now only been supported for five years instead of the seven that Microsoft normally provided for Office. Prices for Office Professional Plus, Office Standard and individual applications are also rising by 10 percent for commercial customers, while Office 2021 pricing for consumers and small businesses remains the same.
Office 2021 LTSC will see a preview in April, but Microsoft says the consumer version will not get the same treatment. Microsoft is currently planning a 2H 2021 version for the new LTSC version of Office. It is unclear for now whether the consumer 2021 Office for Mac and PC may arrive earlier.
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