Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 and Exchange 2013 RTM; Office 365 Update Due Nov.

Microsoft's next-generation Office solutions and other "2013"-branded products have reached the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) stage, the company announced on Thursday.

The RTM milestone indicates that the products are complete and close to being available on the market for purchase. However, it's not just Office 2013 that is emerging fully baked; also at the RTM stage are Exchange 2013, Lync 2013, SharePoint 2013, Project 2013 and Visio 2013.

Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Office Division, announced the RTM milestone in a blog post. He claimed that the 2013-branded Office represents "the most ambitious release of Office we've ever done."

In July, Koenigsbauer and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off touch-friendly Office 2013 apps. These apps will run on the "Desktop" side of the Windows 8 user interface. Microsoft is also building "Metro-style" Office apps, but so far only the OneNote Metro-style app is available for testing. Gartner analyst Steve Kleynhans has described the new Office 2013 apps as very similar to those in Office 2010, but with screen layouts optimized for touch. Kleynhans added that he didn't consider Office 2013 to represent a major user interface change, but those familiar with Office 2007 and Office 2010 will notice some differences.

Office 2013 Availability
Those wanting to get their hands on the new 2013 products can expect them to be available in the "first quarter of 2013," according to Koenigsbauer. In the meantime, Microsoft will be running a promotional deal for new Office 2010 buyers, offering a free upgrade to Office 2013 when it's released. This promo will start on Oct. 19 for those buying Office 2010 from retailers or resellers.

Microsoft's volume licensing customers will have the ability to download the 2013 products before general availability. Those products will be available through Microsoft's Volume Licensing Service Center by "mid-November," with pricing available on Dec. 1.

Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN subscribers also will have access to the 2013 product bits by mid-November.

When Windows RT devices hit the market starting on October 26, they will contain a preloaded "preview" version of Office Home and Student 2013. This preview can be upgraded for free to the Office and Home Student 2013 product after a few months, according to an earlier Microsoft announcement. The Windows RT version of Office won't be available as a boxed retail edition.

Office 365 Service Update
Office 365, Microsoft's service that delivers hosted versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Lync, along with a premises-installed Office Professional Plus, is also getting new capabilities. The Office 365 improvements happen a bit differently from the RTM releases because Microsoft continually updates its Office 365 services through various "service update" releases. The next service update with the new 2013-branded capabilities will start becoming available to Office subscribers in November.

Developers building on Office 365 could see a bit of downtime during the service update transition period, according to a Microsoft blog post. Developer tools, including Napa, will get an upgrade too at the time of the service update.

Ref: http://rcpmag.com/articles/2012/10/12/office-sharepoint-exchange-2013-rtm.aspx

Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, Exchange 2013 Released to Volume Licensees

Volume licensing customers can now access Microsoft Office 2013, plus various application servers with the "2013" branding, according to a report by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley.

Microsoft confirmed Foley's account, indicating that volume licensees with Software Assurance can now download release-to-manufacturing (RTM) versions of Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, Exchange 2013 and Lync 2013 from the Microsoft's Volume Licensing Service Center. Pricing for the products will be disclosed on Dec. 1.
 

Volume licensing availability arrives a little early. Microsoft indicated earlier this month with the RTM release that volume licensees would get the bits "by mid-November." Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN received access to RTM versions of 2013 products a week ago.

Those Office 365 subscribers getting hosted versions of Lync and SharePoint are just beginning to get the latest service updates from Microsoft, according to Foley's account. Microsoft had previously said that Office 365 subscribers would start to get the next service update in November. The service updates get delivered to customers extending into early 2013.

The 2013-branded products are expected to hit "general availability" in the first quarter of 2013, according to Microsoft. That's Microsoft terminology for when boxed copies of Office 2013 will be available, although Foley's sources are suggesting that it will happen early in that quarter -- namely, in January.

Microsoft currently has a promotional offer for those buying retail copies of Office 2010 that allows them to upgrade to Office 2013 at no extra charge. The offer is limited to 25 "redemptions per person or organization" and Microsoft sends an e-mail to those signing up indicating when the Office 2013 upgrade will be available. There's one catch in that the "offer cannot be redeemed after the redemption end date has passed," according to the offer's terms. That end date isn't yet been specified by Microsoft, as of this writing.

The version of Office that comes with the new Microsoft Surface RT machines, Office Home and Student RT, initially was shipped on machines as a preview version. However, but the free upgrade to the full Office Home and Student RT was already available on Oct. 26 when the Surface RT machines appeared in Microsoft Stores.

Microsoft is also going to deliver the new Office version for Windows Phone 8 devices, including HTC, Nokia and Samsung models, when those devices become available. The new Windows Phone 8 devices are expected to be available starting in late November, near the Thanksgiving holiday. The phones will have an Office Mobile version that doesn't have all of the capabilities of Microsoft's Office 2013 flagship product.

Ref: http://rcpmag.com/articles/2012/11/01/office-sharepoint-exchange-2013-volume-licensees.aspx