Although Microsoft is pushing Office 365 subscriptions, it has so far retained the option for a one-time purchase on new versions – and has confirmed that this will also be available for Office 2024 for Mac.
The other good news is that we expect the price to remain unchanged from Office 2021 for Mac.
Macworld spotted a recent blog post where Microsoft announced a version of Office outside of Office 365 for organizations that need independence from constantly connecting to a device.
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“We know that some customers have specialized, but important, scenarios that require a truly long-term servicing channel. These include regulated devices that cannot receive updates for extended periods of time, process control devices that are not connected to the internet, and special-purpose devices, such as medical testing equipment, that run embedded applications that must remain locked down. For these special cases, Microsoft continues to provide and support the Office Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). Today, we are pleased to announce that the commercial preview of the next Office LTSC release – Office LTSC 2024 – will begin next month, with general availability to follow later.”
Below, it is confirmed that the option will remain available to consumers.
“We plan to release a new version of on-premises Office for consumers later this year, Office 2024. This version will be supported for five years with the traditional “one-time purchase” model. We have no planned changes to the pricing of the products at launch . More details about the new features of Office 2024 will be announced closer to general availability.”
Mentioning five years of support doesn't mean that the app will be discontinued after that period. Instead, the company is committing to providing support only for that period. This may mean that there will be no further updates to maintain its compatibility with future macOS versions after 2029.
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The current version costs $149.99 (~€138), and Microsoft says it has no plans to increase the price. However, it can't absolutely guarantee that this won't change in the future.
Source: 9to5mac
