Microsoft Office 2013: Release Date To Be First Quarter Next Year; iOS, Android Apps for Product Due Out March

Fans of Microsoft Office will not have to wait long for the next version, 2013, to come out.

The software giant announced Thursday via their blog that Microsoft Office is now in the "release to manufacturing" stage, meaning the product is complete and the company is ready to focus on releasing the new version of Office, which is expected to be available to the world by the first quarter next year.

"This is the most ambitious release of Office we've ever done," a press release from Microsoft issued Thursday read. "It spans the full family of Office applications, servers and cloud services. The new Office has a fresh, touch friendly design that works beautifully on Windows 8 and unlocks modern scenarios in social, reading, note-taking, meetings and communications. We are proud to achieve this milestone and are eager to deliver this exciting release to our customers."

Beginning Oct. 19, the company wrote, customers purchasing Office 2010 from local retailers or resellers will receive the new Office for free upon availability.

Networkworld.com writes that the new version is expected by Microsoft to help the company keep pace, and even outmatch rivals such as Google Docs.

However, questions still abound on whether Microsoft Office 2013 will be coming to iOS and Android.

The Verge.com reported this week that Microsoft's Czech Republic team has confirmed that Microsoft 2013 will be available for iOS and Android by March.

The news came as reported from Czech site IHNED, who were told by Microsoft product manager Petr Bobek at a Wednesday press conference in the Czech Republic that the software giant was planning to release native iOS and Andriod version of Office 2013 next year.

However, The Verge later updated their article with a newly released statement from Microsoft which read, "The information shared by our Czech subsidiary is not accurate. We do not have anything further to share at this time."

For those eager to give the pre-release version a whirl, Microsoft invites users to visit office.com/preview.