Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, Office 365 and Exchange 2013 RTM

Today, Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president in the Microsoft Office Division, announced that Office solutions and other "2013"-branded products have reached the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) stage.

Some key points

• IT professionals and developers will be able to download the final version via their TechNet or MSDN subscriptions by mid-November.
• General availability is planned for the first quarter of 2013. Starting October 19, customers purchasing Office 2010 from local retailers or resellers will receive the new Office for free upon availability.
• Customers will also see a preview version of the new Office on Windows RT devices, beginning with the Windows 8 launch on October 26.
• Rolling out new capabilities to Office 365 Enterprise customers in our next service update, starting in November through general availability.
• Volume Licensing customers with Software Assurance will be able to download the Office 2013 applications as well as other Office products including SharePoint 2013, Lync 2013 and Exchange 2013 through the Volume Licensing Service Center by mid-November. These products will be available on the Volume Licensing price list on December 1.