Microsoft has discovered a goldmine in its subscription office platform Office 365. The company’s offering was what the market demanded: It was an excuse to use Word or Excel collaboratively in the cloud, but you had to pay a monthly fee to access that option. We still have Microsoft to thank. We already did this once, now we’re doing it again.

Not everything needs to be a subscription. In 2017, Microsoft announced that it was preparing a new version of its office suite. It was going to be called Office 2019, which surprised us because the company was offering it the same way it traditionally offers such applications. You can pay once and forget about monthly payments. Many of us were grateful for this initiative, which allowed us to get rid (at least a little) of all those subscriptions that were starting to stifle us.

But of course it also had its disadvantages.. Of course, Microsoft offered a lower quality product than them. No access to Word or Excel in the cloud from the browser, and no access to new features that may come over time. Office 365 is a product that is constantly updated and developed. Office 2019 was a product that would remain the same forever, except for security updates.

And they never introduced it in Redmond. In fact, Microsoft offered Office 2019 but didn’t ask you to buy it. To demonstrate this, they launched a marketing campaign consisting of various videos (now converted into exclusive videos) that wanted to make it clear that Office 2019 (perpetual license) is an inferior product compared to Office 365 (monthly subscription). Still, they acknowledged that there are people who are “not ready for the cloud.” Jared Spataro, a Microsoft executive, even touched on the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence at a time when ChatGPT and Copilot were still years away from seeing the light of day.

But there will still be Office 2024. Microsoft announced that despite the subscription rule, they are preparing the preliminary version of Microsoft Office LTSC 2024 (Long Term Service Channel), that is, the new Office version that will be the continuation of 2019. version and, as usual, it will be a version for end users and will have a five-year support period. As they emphasize, Office 2024 will have a perpetual per-device license, but they also insist that this is a proprietary product that Microsoft has committed to maintaining “for use in exceptional cases.”

But they encourage us to move to the cloud. Even so, Microsoft clearly states that “The future of work in a world powered by AI is in the cloud.” Support for Office 2016 and 2019 will end in October 2025, but when “a solution frozen and disconnected in time” is needed, they explain, Microsoft is committed to delivering it. Office 2024 will be available for Windows 10, Windows 11, and macOS and will have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Long live perpetual licenses. While we are faced with situations where subscriptions are overwhelming us everywhere and reaching absurd levels, it is almost pleasing that giants such as Microsoft realize the existence of users who claim to be able to purchase products instead of renting them. It is clear that companies find it much more interesting to have subscribers – it is a miracle for those who get constant and predictable income – and therefore it is appreciated that such bets continue.

Image | Ed Hardie

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