What you need to know
- Microsoft has announced Office 2021 and LTSC.
- The consumer and commercial versions of its Office suite will both be available on macOS.
Microsoft has announced a new version of Microsoft Office for both consumers and commercial use coming later this year to macOS.
In a press release the company stated:
Earlier today, we announced new capabilities that enable customers to unlock the value of Microsoft 365 even if they rely on shared workstations or devices that must be offline for months at a time. We also reviewed new management capabilities that have come to Microsoft 365 over the past 18 months to help IT admins ensure their businesses are secure, and their people can work with confidence from anywhere. And now, I'm pleased to provide an update on Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), the next perpetual release of Office. A commercial preview of Microsoft Office LTSC will be available in April.
'LTCS' is a version of Office built for "regulated devices that cannot accept feature updates for years at a time, process control devices on the manufacturing floor that are not connected to the internet, and specialty systems that must stay locked in time and require a long-term servicing channel."
Alongside this, Office 2021 is coming later this year for both business and personal use. From Microsoft:
Office 2021 will also be supported for five years with the traditional "one-time purchase" model. We do not plan to change the price for these products at the time of the release. We will announce more details about new features included in Office 2021 closer to general availability.
Microsoft confirmed that both the commercial and consumer versions of this will be supported on Mac and Windows.
In December Microsoft unveiled universal app support for its Microsoft 365 suite including support for the M1 Mac and macOS Big Sur. It also released a Microsoft Office app for iPad earlier this week.
