On Friday, a Microsoft spokesperson announced that, as expected, the company is planning to finalize the work over Office 2010 next month. Besides, Microsoft will start developing a program allowing those who will buy Office 2010 in the next few months to get a free upgrade to the new version.

In a blog publication, it’s explained that the company will have a business launch for the Office 2010 products on May 12. It’s added too that software is expected to be broadly available in June.

As far as the technology program guarantee is concerned, Microsoft announced that it will apply to those who buy Office 2007 between now and September 30 and will allow an upgrade to the comparable Office 2010 product.

Though such programs are typical, this one had even less of an element of surprise. It occurred to be so, after a Microsoft employee briefly posted details of the program last month. Microsoft CFO Peter Klein confirmed the program earlier this week, telling financial analysts on Tuesday to expect the company to defer revenue this quarter to next to account for the upgrades.

Although Office 2010 doesn't bring a radically different look or new file formats, as Office 2007 did, it leads in a number of changes, most significantly the addition of companion Office Web apps that work in a browser. Also, for the first time, Office will come in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

A beta version of the Office 2010 has been available since November and Microsoft has also been doing limited testing of a near-final "release candidate" version of the software.