Office 2007 Delay? Actually, No.

There has been a lot of confusion over the announcement that Office 2007 would also reschedule its consumer launch date to January 2007 to match that of Vista.  This marketing launch is a different animal than the development and availability date of the Office 2007 product(s).

Microsoft clarifies this with a press release that reads as follows:

----

Microsoft Confirms Timeline for 2007 Microsoft Office System
Product on track for October RTM.

REDMOND, Wash. — March 24, 2006 — Yesterday, Microsoft Corp. confirmed the timeline for release and availability of its 2007 Microsoft® Office system. The company remains on track to complete work on the 2007 Microsoft Office system in October of this year and is planning to make the product available to the business customers through the volume licensing program in October 2006. Retail and OEM availability of the product are scheduled to coincide with the retail and OEM availability of the Windows Vista™ operating system in January 2007.

-----

It has been stated that Beta 2 will be available in June, and the above press release specifies October as the RTM and bits available date. Rock on!