The promotion will run until the end of April next year

Sep 12, 2012 14:13 GMT  ·  By

Office 2013, the next major release of Microsoft’s productivity suite, is currently available in a preview version, while moving fast towards RTM, allegedly set for November.

Before that happens, however, it appears that Microsoft will be kicking off its upgrade program for the application, which enables those who purchase Office 2010 to grab the upcoming version for free.

Office 2013 is expected to become commercially available early next year, but the upgrade offering should kick off several months before that.

As ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley notes in a recent article, Microsoft’s Office 2010 tech guarantee program for the purchasers of Office 2007, launched in March 2010, has been up and running for a period of seven months.

Moreover, Mary Jo Foley suggests that the Office 2013 tech guarantee program should last seven months as well, although Microsoft hasn’t provided specific info on the matter for the time being.

While the Office 2010 tech guarantee program was free, there is no telling on whether Microsoft will choose a similar approach for the new Office 2013 suite, though there is a great chance that it will.

However, there is also the possibility that Microsoft will go for the same approach it did with Windows 8, which is not free for the purchasers of new Windows 7 PCs, although it features a greatly discounted price.

The upcoming guarantee program for the new productivity suite is expected to be launched for the purchasers of new versions of Office 2010 Home & Student, Home & Business 2010, Professional 2010 or University 2010.

Mac users who purchase University 2011 or Home & Student 2011 versions of the application will also be eligible for an upgrade. The promotion will run between October 19, 2012 and April 30, 2013.

Windows users will be able to upgrade either to Office 365 Home Premium, similar to what is being previewed at the moment, or to Office 2013 SKUs that resemble more the existing Office versions.

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