14 DAY TRIAL // April 27th, 2010 is synonymous with the second stage of availability for the latest version of Microsoft’s Office System. Starting today, Volume License customers with active Software Assurance (SA) have access to the final bits of Office 2010. Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president, Microsoft Office, announced as early as April 15th, that the company’s Volume License customers would be able to get their hands on the successor of Office 2007 this week, provided they had an SA agreement with the software giant. The Office 2010 RTM downloads will be offered via the Volume Licensing Service Center.
“The Volume Licensing Service Center is the single location for Microsoft Volume Licensing customers to view Licensing information, download Microsoft software and manage Volume Licensing benefits and subscriptions,” a description of the service reads. So far, only the English version of Office 2010 has been offered to customers.
Microsoft released Office 2010 to manufacturing on April 15th. A few days later, on April 22nd, MSDN and TechNet subscribers were allowed to download the RTM bits. But just as Volume License customers with SA, subscribers to the Redmond company’s developer and IT professional portals only have access to the English variant of Office 2010 RTM.
Business users without SA will be able to purchase Office 2010 RTM starting with May 1st. Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, is scheduled to announce the official launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 11 a.m. EST. Office 2010 RTM will only hit store shelves in June 2010. The Redmond company has yet to provide a specific deadline.
At the same time, Microsoft has not offered any details about plans to launch the localized versions of Office 2010. So far, only the English flavor of the productivity suite has been up for grabs.