There has been a lot of speculation about the launch date of the Microsoft Office 2013, as it was originally code-named Office 15. It now seems clear from its alternative title that it is to be launched sometime in 2013. It was in the pipeline as early as 2009, even before the release of Microsoft Office 2010 as has been admitted by spokespersons from the Microsoft company and what has been gleaned from job advertisements.

As to what can be expected from Office 15, here is a part of a job advertisement published on the Microsoft web site: "Now is your chance to get in on the ground floor of the Office organization’s newest team. The Office Mobile suite includes Communication mobile, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, and SharePoint with more applications and capabilities being planned as part of the Office 15 product suite."

It is expected that Windows 8 will be released late 2011 or early in 2012, with Office 15 being release in 2013. Microsoft’s Office 2011 Mac version is expected any time now, and will feature Outlook for the first time. The next big release will undoubtedly be in 2013, as Microsoft will want to give it time so that consumers will buy the versions already launched prior to 2013. It makes good business sense not to release the best thing, when you have other projects which are nearer completion and which need to be sold.

However, Office 15 or Microsoft Office 2013 is causing ripples in the technological world already with Microsoft giving out tidbits of information which further fire the speculation surrounding its much-touted, still to be perfected product. One such statement went like this:-

Office 15 has "major new features, completely new for Office, and make Office 15 peerless." There’s a lot of hype in this statement, but certainly it is something to be eagerly anticipated. We are promised "improvement of co-authorship of documents, a new tool in Office 2010, which will be the main focal point for Word 15." Not only that but, "there will be an improved mechanism Automation Framework."

So there you have what is out there for us to know- there will be no rival for the Office 15 and it will have exciting new possibilities for use and features. It will also be useful in mobile devices, which means, perhaps, that cloud hosting will be utilized so that there can indeed be more collaboration in the case of "co-authorship" of documents. So does this mean that other Office launches will not be as successful as hoped, because people will opt to wait for the "peerless" Office 15, clearly a non-pareil?