Office goes RTM – generally available Q1 ‘13

Boom goes the cannon. Another RTM milestone for Microsoft and this one (Office) was a month ahead of schedule. For WinRT (like the Surface RT) you’ll get a preview (Which was always expected). For Pro, if you buy Office 2010 after October 19 you can get a free upgrade when it’s available. General availability is Q1 2013. Some businesses will get early access.

Here are the details:

• We will begin 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.
• IT professionals and developers will be able to download the final version via their TechNet or MSDN subscriptions by mid-November.

Of course, you can try the consumer preview now for free (it’s just time bombed).