Microsoft 365 may rule the roost these days, but the fact remains that many users prefer to get a full release of Office that they pay for upfront rather than paying for a subscription. 

To cater for these users there still will be Office releases for both businesses and consumers to follow up Office 2019. These will be available for both Windows and macOS. 

Jared Spataro, head of Microsoft 365 says in a blog post that while the cloud is where Microosft is investing, it doesn't want to leave behind customers who need to pay in one go.

"To fuel the work of the future, we need the power of the cloud. The cloud is where we invest, where we innovate, where we discover the solutions that help our customers empower everyone in their organization - even as we all adjust to a new world of work.

"But we also acknowledge that some of our customers need to enable a limited set of locked-in-time scenarios, and these updates reflect our commitment to helping them meet this need."

The move is in contrast to some other vendors, notably Adobe, who has moved completely over to a cloud-based model with Creative Cloud. 

Microsoft Office 365 Personal with teams

Amazon

Microsoft says that Office 2021 will be supported for five years and will have the same prices as the existing software. "We will announce more details about new features included in Office 2021 closer to general availability."

However, don't expect a slew of new features and, of course, everything will also be available via Microsoft 365. Features in the cloud versions are shipped as soon as they're available.