If recent remarks from Microsoft Chief Executive Office Steve Ballmer are to be believed, Office 2010 will be out in March 2010, just two months from now. The next iteration of the Office productivity suite is currently in public Beta phase, with the company indicating that the bits had been downloaded in excess of 2 million times since the introduction of Build 14.0.4536.1000 at the Professional Developers Conference 2009 (PDC 2009) in Los Angeles. While the software giant confirmed officially that it was looking to release Office 2010 by June 2010, a specific general availability deadline has yet to be announced.

The closest Microsoft has come to confirm a launch date for Office 2010 is during the Nashville Technology Council at the Trevecca Nazarene University on January 20, 2010, when Ballmer said: “You'll see the new version of Office, which comes out here in just a couple of months. It not only works on your PC but it will work through any Web browser and down onto the phone in new and rich ways. And so we keep pushing some themes. One of the ones I'm excited about that comes with Office, comes with the new version of Outlook, and comes actually particularly to the business customer is really the notion of bringing social networking into the world of business and business productivity and business applications.” (via ActiveWin) (emphasis added)

I contacted a Microsoft representative and asked whether Office 2010 will indeed be out in a couple of months, and I’m waiting for a response. As soon as I have a definitive answer from the company, I’ll provide an update on the matter. Still, end users should take this with a grain of salt. Microsoft has on various occasions in the past disputed the legitimacy of information published on its own websites blaming various errors, and this could prove just such a case.

Users that followed the evolution of Office 2010’s development process already know that in the first half of this month Build 14.0.4730.1007 was leaked and made available for download in the wild. What’s interesting about Build 14.0.4730.1007 is the fact that the End User License Agreement (EULA) indicates that the release is RTM. Microsoft has not announced the General Availability (GA) deadline, let alone the release to manufacturing (RTM) date, but with Build 14.0.4730.1007 and Ballmer’s latest remark indicate that Microsoft is gearing up to wrap up Office 2010.

Office 2010 Beta 14.0.4536.1000 is available for download here.