Microsoft confirmed Office 2021 would launch later this year for Windows and Mac having a one-time purchase option, and this version is specifically aimed at people who don't want to get a regular membership for Microsoft 365.

Simultaneously, the company has confirmed that Office 2021 wouldn't function as the last on-premises release for the productivity suite, thus confirming that it is next release would also come with a non-subscription version.

Obviously, no specifics are available at this time, but it's definitely great news for individuals who require a powerful productivity suite but where a subscription-based model doesn't make much sense.

"As with previous releases, Office LTSC will still be a device-based "perpetual" license. We designed it as an area of expertise product meant for specific scenarios and will increase the price of Office Professional Plus, Office Standard, and the individual apps by as much as 10 percent at the time of general availability. And, because we are always asked at release if there will be a different one, I'm happy to confirm our commitment to another release later on," Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, said today.

The launch is set for late 2021

However, Microsoft obviously hopes more people will give a go to the subscription-based Office, explaining that the on-premises version misses out on all of the new features which are added after the launch.

"Without access towards the cloud, Office LTSC includes only a subset from the value present in Microsoft 365 Apps, building over included in past releases. New Office LTSC features will include accessibility improvements, capabilities like Dynamic Arrays and XLOOKUP in Excel, dark mode support across multiple apps, and gratifaction improvements across Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. The following form of Office will not ship with the Skype for Business client app, which will be available like a download within the Microsoft Download Center. It'll ship using the Microsoft Teams app, allowing customers to enable and trial this experience when they so choose," Spataro explained.

Office 2021 will launch later this year for both Windows and Mac.