14 DAY TRIAL // Apple took the wraps off its own in-house built M1 processor earlier this week, and the first devices powered by it are supposed to go on sale on November 17.
Needless to say, the apps out there need to be optimized to run on Apple Silicon, and as the world’s number one software company, Microsoft wants to be one of the first to bring its products on Apple’s new devices.
Only a day after first announcing the beta builds of Office for Apple Silicon, Microsoft returns with a big announcement: Microsoft 365 and Office 2019 support is ready for M1-powered devices.
In other words, those getting Apple’s new generation of devices will be able to install Microsoft Office on day one thanks to this new update.
What’s important to know is that Mac users need to install the November 2020 Update, or version 16.43, to benefit from the support for M1-powered devices.
“The latest release of apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive can be installed on devices that are based on the Apple Silicon architecture. For the best experience, install the November 2020 release (build 16.43), or later. This release of Office includes the latest optimizations for macOS Big Sur, which is the first operating system to support Apple Silicon,” Microsoft explains.
“Apple Silicon processors can run apps that are compiled for the Intel chipset through a software technology known as Rosetta 2. This translation layer is automatically enabled in macOS Big Sur and provides users with access to all features in Microsoft's apps including support for third-party add-ins. End-users and business customers can use existing methods to install and deploy Office.”
Microsoft explains that the first time users launch the new Office on Apple Silicon, they should notice a longer loading time, though this would no longer happen at a later time. In other words, after you install Microsoft Office on a device powered by the new M1 chip, the productivity suite would need up to 20 seconds to load more time to load (Microsoft originally estimated the whole thing would take up to 20 seconds, but this reference has since been removed), but things would come back to normal after that.
“The first launch of each Office app will take longer as the operating system has to generate optimized code for the Apple Silicon processor. Users will notice that the apps 'bounce' in the dock for approximately 20 seconds while this process completes. Subsequent app launches will be fast,” Microsoft explains.
There are no feature differences between the new build of Microsoft Office and the other versions available on macOS, as feature parity has been critical for the software giant.
In the meantime, the company says it continues the work on a universal installer that would be available on the Mac.
“As demonstrated at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June 2020, we've already started the process of moving Mac apps to universal binaries. In the future we will natively support both Apple Silicon and Intel chipsets within the same executable,” Microsoft explained.
Microsoft 365 has become one of Microsoft’s main cash cows, and it’s pretty clear that support Apple Silicon on day one is a priority. And it’s all because more and more people are working from home these days due to obvious reasons, and embracing productivity suites like Office 365 is the only way to remain productive just like they would’ve been working from the office. Microsoft itself acknowledged that its products recorded massive growth in the last 8 months or so, revealing recently the adoption of Microsoft Teams skyrocketed due to the global health issue as more employees started working remotely.