Microsoft has officially announced the official launch date for upcoming version of Microsoft Office 2010. While announcing the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee program, which allows buyers of Microsoft Office 2007 to receive free upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010.
According to Microsoft Office 2010 Engineering blog, Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 are on schedule and will release to manufacturing (RTM) in April 2010.
The official launch date of Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 will be on May 12, 2010, with Worldwide Business Launch Events scheduled from the same day onwards. However, initially, the 2010 set of Office products will be available for businesses and enterprises through volume licensing (VL) agreement channel, probably through digital download. Retail consumers and end-users will be able to purchase Office 2010 at retail shelves by June 2010.
However, the final RTM version of Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 is widely expected to be available for download via MSDN and TechNet Subscriber Downloads shortly after Office 2010 is RTMed. Once that happens, most people will be able to download the ISO images or setup installers of Office 2010 through BitTorrent (BT) torrents or file sharing sites.
Previously, Microsoft has released the selling price of Office 2010, which introduced a new product key card (PKC) which end-users can purchase to activate and unlock preferred version of Office 2010 installed on OEM computer. With Office 2010, OEM will pre-load a new Office image that includes all three versions of Office 2010 available for retail purchase, which are Home and Student edition, which will include licenses for use on up to three PCs, as well as the Home and Business and the Professionals editions, which will include licenses for use on one desktop PC and one portable PC used by the same user. In addition, there is also Office Starter 2010 which comes free forever.
By the launch of Office 2010, there will also be an “Office Anytime Upgrade” or “Office Upgrade Anywhere” program, similar to Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade where customers can upgrade the Office 2010 Home and Student edition or the Office 2010 Home and Business Edition to higher and more premium edition, such as Office 2010 Professional by paying additional amount of money.
And, as usual, to encourage sales prior to the release of Office 2010, Microsoft is launching Office 2010 Technology Guarantee program, first reported on My Digital Life, which provides free upgrade from Office 2007 to Office 2010 for Office 2007 purchased between now and September 30, 2010.
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