[German]Microsoft has announced a new Office 2021 (as well as an LTSC version) for the 2nd half of 2021. The LTSC version of Microsoft Office is available now. The Office 2021 version, on the other hand, is scheduled for release to business customers and consumers on October 5, 2021. Here is some information about these products.
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In February 2021, there was an initial announcement about Office 2021 (as well as an LTSC version) for the 2nd half of 2021 – I had reported about it in the blog post Microsoft Office 2021 announced. Now Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, has revealed the details on September 16, 2021 in the post Office LTSC is now generally available.
Microsoft sees the future in the cloud and says that the overwhelming majority of customers are opting for the cloud and the co-version in the form of Office 365. But Microsoft knows that some customers still cannot or do not want to switch to the cloud. For these customers, Office versions are offered as a purchased product with a perpetual license.
The versions of Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, Skype for Business Server and Project Server expected in 2021, on the other hand, will only be available as a subscription model for rent (see this article from Ignite 2020).
Office LTSC available
Following the announcement in the spring, a preview was released on the Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) for Windows and macOS. Then, on September 16, 2021, Microsoft announced the general availability of this next LTSC Office version (as an indefinite release) for commercial and government customers. That means this version will only be available to volume licensing customers, so it won't go on sale for consumers.
Office LTSC is designed for a limited number of specific situations: regulated devices that can't accept feature updates for years, process control devices in manufacturing that aren't connected to the Internet, and specialty systems that are expected to provide the same functionality over long periods of time and don't allow constant changes via feature updates.
Both Office LTSC and the Microsoft 365 version of Office can be rolled out using the same deployment tools. In line with the upcoming Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 release (see Windows 10 LTSC: Next version with reduced 5 years support), Office LTSC will get a support period of five years. Updates will be provided during this time.
The next version of Office will ship with the Microsoft Teams app. Skype for Business client will no longer ship with it, but will be available as a download from the Microsoft Download Center.
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Office 2021 to be available for purchase on October 5, 2021
Already in the article Microsoft Office 2021 announced I had stated that Microsoft would release an Office 2021 for home users and small businesses in the fall of 2021. Office 2021 can be purchased once, so it is not a subscription model like Office 365. This Office 2021 version will be supported with updates for five years.
Office 2021 is said to be available for macOS as well as Windows 10 and Windows 11, with 32-bit and 64-bit versions available. OneNote is expected to remain part of the Office 2021 suite. Office 2021 will be generally available starting Oct. 5, 2021, according to the Sept. 16 blog post – with more details to follow. The price for these products is to remain the same (probably to the previous version Office 2016) at the time of release.
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