End clap for Office! Microsoft is officially abandoning its famous office suite, which, after 32 years of service, gives way to Microsoft 365, its cloud-oriented equivalent. A simple name change to adapt to the times.
After Intel with its Pentium and Celeron processors last month, it’s the turn of another tech giant to abandon a historic brand. In this case, it is Microsoft, which has just officially announced the end of Office, its famous – and essential – office suite. Needless to say, the news is somewhat shaking the IT sphere, because Office is a real institution – and a huge source of income for Microsoft! For anyone who has spent countless hours on Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, it’s even an unchanging landmark in the ever-changing world of computing. Arrived on PC in 1990, it has since undergone several redesigns but has always been present at the post. On the eve of her 32nd birthday, she bows out. But without really disappearing: it simply gives way to Microsoft 365, its equivalent in the form of cloud services, offered by subscription – and which has existed for several years. In fact, it is above all a change of name, which clarifies the offer. but that says a lot about Microsoft’s online services strategy. Office does not disappear: the suite will simply continue under another name, including in free form.
Microsoft Office becomes Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 – the new name of Microsoft Office, therefore – brings together the Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher and Access applications, as well as a set of online services such as OneDrive, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams and Yammer. – the firm plans to add Microsoft Designer, a graphic design tool powered by AI. Unlike Microsoft Office, which is a perpetual license – meaning the user makes a one-time upfront payment to get Office applications on a computer – Microsoft 365 operates as a subscription – monthly or yearly – and therefore allows you to enjoy the services with their latest updates. On top of that, it offers additional storage space and cloud-connected features, including real-time file collaboration. “For the past few years, Microsoft 365 has become our flagship office suite. So we decided to help you get the most out of Microsoft 365. In the coming months, Office.com, the Office mobile app, and the Office app for Windows will become the Microsoft 365 app, with a new logo, new design, and new features.” explains the company.
With this switch, Microsoft 365 will benefit from some changes. It will take the form of a hub bringing together all the applications and from which it will be possible to communicate with colleagues and organize one’s work. Users will have the pleasant surprise of discovering new document templates, or even a module bringing together all the documents created and shared with them. Microsoft would like to reassure those who would be worried about such a change: “there will be no impact to your account, profile, subscription or files. Apps will be updated automatically with a new icon and name.”
This change will begin in November and will first apply to Office Online – the free, lite online version of the suite – then to all platforms for Windows mobile in January 2023. They will be automatically updated to receive their new name, logo and icon. It is a changeover at the economic level that is taking place on the side of Microsoft, which passes from a model where customers buy software to that on subscription. For the moment, the Redmond firm will keep the one-time payment purchase option with Microsoft Office 2021.