Office 2013 is now available on TechNet/MSDN

Microsoft has posted the RTM build of Office 2013 and Exchange to TechNet and MSDN for those of you who are lucky enough to have access to those platforms. These two new products bring with them a host of new features and also a flatter look but are still far from the "modern" them that Microsoft has been deploying across all of its products.

People who purchase the current retail version of Office 2010 starting on October 19 will be able to get a free copy of Office 2013 when it ships sometime in the first quarter of 2013. As previously announced, people who purchase a new Windows RT-based hardware product on or after October 26th will get the final version of Office 2013 too.

Microsoft has also said that subscribers to Office 365 Enterprise will get some "new capabilities" in an upcoming update that will be made available in November. 

Download: Office 2013

Microsoft announces Office 365

Microsoft announced today the newest implementation of cloud services in the MS Office platform, called Office 365. An enterprise-level suite of software and services for both small and large businesses, Office 365 promises to bring increased collaboration and productivity to the workplace using SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Office and Lync. It is a fully browser-based solution that incorporates enterprise webmail, remote collaboration and document management in a service compatible with most browsers. 

Office 365 for Small Businesses, the entry-level package, will get access to Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online, Lync Online, and an external website for $6 per user, per month. For larger businesses, Office 365 for enterprises offers all that and some more. For $24 a user, per month, the package includes e-mail, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, voiceconferencing and videoconferencing, and what’s possibility the most groundbreaking feature yet, pay-as-you-go access to Office Professional Plus .

While Office 365 won’t be available until next year, Microsoft will be testing the software thoroughly in many companies globally in an expanding beta program. After the rollout of the two base packages next year, there will be versions for educational institutions as well as integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The full press release can be found here.

Office 2013 details surface on the web

Hot on the heels of the official worldwide release of Office 2010 yesterday, details have surfaced on the next version of the award winning suite - Office 15, or its likely name, Office 2013.

Microsoft Kitchen is reporting that they located a PDF file hosted on a Microsoft-partner owned server, describing details regarding next version of Microsoft Office.

"By the time Office 2010 was released, some Microsoft Engineers had already begun work on the next version (code-named Office 15)."

Microsoft Kitchen also noted that a few Microsoft Employee's have been writing information about products they are working on, into their LinkedIn profiles - Josh Leong has written on his LinkedIn profile that he is:

"Designing the new visual & interaction experience for Office 15."

And Ben Gable's profile says he has:

"Designed major new feature to be introduced in Office 15"

The post notes that there are other new changes that have been mentioned across the web, such as Office Mobile 15 being considered in the planning, that Collaboration is a key point in Office 15, and it should see an Improved Automation Framework. The UI change comes as quite odd, considering the effort Microsoft has put into the ribbon, and the integration they have built into Windows 7 and it's built in applications, so it is very unknown how large the change could be.

It's best to remember though, that these details can likely change, and this is very early in the lifecycle - considering Office 2010 was just released, it's likely not many other details will emerge for a while.