On March 15, Microsoft announced a new standalone version of their productivity suite, Office 2024.
This Office version caters to users prefer a one-time purchase over a Microsoft 365 subscription model.
Similar to Office 2021 and 2024, it falls under the Long-Term Servicing Channel, targeting users prioritizing stability & predictability over constant updates.
The preview of it is coming soon, and the official release is expected later in 2024, alongside a new Windows 11 LTSC release.
It is expected to support five years of security and feature updates from the release date.
According to reports, there will be changes for consumers compared to Office 2021. Businesses might see a price increase of up to 10%.
There are new options for creating meetings, improved search in Outlook, and various new features and functions in Excel, including Dynamic Charts and Arrays.
Overall performance, security, and accessibility improvements are expected of the new version of Office.
However, it will lack Publisher, discontinued in October 2026, Microsoft Copilot AI assistant due to its disconnected product and real-time collaboration features available in Microsoft 365.
While offering Office 2024, Microsoft emphasizes their preference for Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
They refer to Office 2024 as a niche product and justify potential price hikes for businesses by arguing that they support continued innovation in this limited market.
Despite Microsoft’s attempt to retire the “Office” brand in 2022, it remains widely used to refer to the productivity suite.
This is evident in the continued use of “Office” alongside the Microsoft 365 branding, even within Windows.
So, Microsoft caters to subscription and one-time purchase preferences with Office 2024.
However, they favour the subscription model with potential price increases for standalone versions for businesses.