Microsoft last week announced the launch of the "Office 2010 Technology Guarantee," a program that the company says will see "eligible consumers who purchase and activate Office 2007 between March 5 and September 30, 2010 to download Office 2010, at no additional software cost (download fees and charges may apply as set by internet service providers), when it becomes available."
The launch of the program comes as Microsoft has outlined plans for an official launch of the suite on May 12th, after which the suite will be available to business users. Most users in that category will have volume licenses with Microsoft and therefore be eligible for a more-or-less instant upgrade.
CIOs in smaller organisations without such arrangements will have to wait, as no No date has been set for a full consumer launch. As a guide, the launch of Office 2007 came late in that year before a full launch in early 2008.
The Guarantee program will allow holders of Office 2007 licenses to download the upgrade for free, but Microsoft has not released information about the size of the download. It may therefore be cheaper to take the option of buying upgrade disks "for a fee", albeit an as-yet-unspecified fee.
Microsoft has established a site to explain the Guarantee and the upgrade process.