Microsoft announces Office 2021, available for Windows and macOS later this year

[Karlston]

Microsoft announces Office 2021, available for Windows and macOS later this year

Microsoft Office LTSC is also arriving for businesses

 

 

Microsoft is announcing two new versions of Office today: a consumer Office 2021 version and Office LTSC for commercial customers. Office 2021 will be available later this year for both Windows and macOS, and similar to the previous Office 2019 release, it’s designed for those who don’t want to subscribe to the cloud-powered Microsoft 365 variants.

 

Microsoft isn’t fully detailing all of the features and changes in Office 2021 just yet, but the Office LTSC (Long-Term Servicing Channel) variant will include things like dark mode support, accessibility improvements, and features like Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel. Office 2021 will include similar features.

 

Don’t expect any major UI changes here, either. Dark mode is the obvious change visually, but Microsoft will still focus most of its interface and cloud-powered features on the Microsoft 365 versions of Office first.

 

Office LTSC is a clear recognition from Microsoft that not all of its business customers are ready to move to the cloud, though. “It’s just a matter of trying to meet customers where they are,” explains Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft 365, in an interview with The Verge. “We certainly have a lot of customers that have moved to the cloud over the last 10 months, that’s happened en masse really. At the same time, we definitely have customers who have specific scenarios where they don’t feel like they can move to the cloud.”

 

The new dark mode in Word.

Image: Microsoft

 

Those specific scenarios include regulated industries where processes and apps can’t change on a monthly basis, or manufacturing plants that rely on Office and want a locked-in time release. Microsoft is also committing to another perpetual version of Office for the future, but it’s changing up pricing and how these new versions will be supported.

 

Office LTSC will now only be supported for five years instead of the seven that Microsoft has typically provided for Office. Pricing for Office Professional Plus, Office Standard, and individual apps is also increasing 10 percent for commercial customers, with the Office 2021 consumer and small business pricing remaining the same.

 

The Office LTSC support timing aligns more closely with how Windows is supported, and Microsoft is also aligning its release schedules for both Office and Windows more closely as a result. Both of the next versions of Office LTSC and Windows 10 LTSC will be released in the second half of 2021. “They will be closely timed, although we don’t have the details yet for the Windows release,” says Spataro. “The idea is to bring them close together so that enterprises can deploy and manage them on a similar type of cadence.”

 

Microsoft is now planning to release a preview of Office LTSC in April, with a full release later this year. The consumer Office 2021 variant won’t be available in preview, though. Both of the new Office variants will also ship with OneNote and include 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

 

 

Microsoft announces Office 2021, available for Windows and macOS later this year

[zanderthunder]

On 2/19/2021 at 4:26 AM, Karlston said:

Office LTSC will now only be supported for five years instead of the seven that Microsoft has typically provided for Office.

Oddly enough, Windows 10 LTSC are supported for ten years, so those who are using that OS will have to upgrade their Office LTSC once every 5 years.

[xhartom]

 

 

Microsoft will launch two versions of Office for those who don't want Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Office 2021 and Office LTSC will be available in the second half of the year.

 

Microsoft has scheduled the release of Office 2021 and a new version of Office Long Term Servicing Channel for this year. The company has aimed the products at businesses that do not want to use the cloud-based equivalent, Microsoft 365.

 

Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, announced in a blog post that the products were coming for Windows and Mac. Office LTSC is intended for the enterprise, while Office 2021 is for personal and small business use.

 

Both products will be released in the second half of the year and will receive five years of support from Microsoft. A preview of Office LTSC will be available in April.

 

Office LTSC fulfills a niche role, Spataro said. Microsoft designed it to work on devices that companies don't often update. The hardware is often on manufacturing floors or in organizations that have to follow government regulations on updates. Microsoft said most businesses that use Office LTSC likely won't adopt it across their entire organizations, but only in specific circumstances.

 

Microsoft said Office LTSC will feature dark mode support and performance and accessibility improvements for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The product will not ship with Skype for Business but will include Microsoft Teams. Skype will still be available for download.

 

Enterprise customers using Office LTSC will be charged more for this release. Microsoft is increasing the price of Office Professional Plus, Office Standard and the individual apps by up to 10%.

 

Microsoft Office

 

Microsoft plans to launch updated Office apps for non-cloud users this year.

 

Microsoft is timing the Office LTSC launch to coincide with the next Windows 10 LTSC, a Windows version covering the same use cases.

 

The company provided few specifics for Office 2021, except that it will not be changing its price. Microsoft said it would announce details as the release date nears.

 

Despite releasing these products, Microsoft's focus is on the cloud, Spataro said.

 

"Some of our customers need to enable a limited set of locked-in-time scenarios," he said. "These updates reflect our commitment to helping them meet this need."

 

Irwin Lazar, an analyst at Metrigy, said he expects significant demand for Office LTHC. He said that after the recent cyberattack on a Florida city's water supply, many organizations will reevaluate security and rethink running older, less secure software. The water treatment facility computer was running Windows 7, which Microsoft no longer supports.

 

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has recommended updating software and operating systems. That should "drive companies to accelerate audits and upgrade investments," Lazar said.

 

Mike Gleason is a reporter covering end-user computing topics such as desktop management. He previously covered communities in the MetroWest region of Massachusetts for the Milford Daily News, Walpole Times, Sharon Advocate and Medfield Press. He has also worked for newspapers in central Massachusetts and southwestern Vermont and served as a local editor for Patch. He can be found on Twitter at @MGleason_TT. 

 

 

SOURCE

 

[Karlston]

Similar topics merged.