Less than two weeks since Microsoft began open beta testing of Office 2010, and it was learned that a group of developers from Microsoft is working on the next major upgrade of the software platform.

The source of this information ─ Blog Microsoft Access Team, in which the producer shares his plans. Lindhorst, Greg, head of the development team at Microsoft, said that they had already started to plan "Office 15" and are considering improvements to support SQL Server. "We note that we are in the very early planning, and, given the set of considered possible areas of investment, I, unfortunately, now I cannot confirm about any real improvements", ─ Lindhorst wrote a blog addressed to the partners MSDN. He further promises that the community will be asked to respond to various issues relating to governance and efficiency in Microsoft Access and SQL Server.

Journalists noted that Office 2003 was released on November 17, 2003, Office 2007 has appeared on Jan. 30, 2007, and Office 2010 should be officially announced in June 2010.Of course, on the basis of these data to wonder about the release date for "Office 15" is difficult, but we can assume that the next Microsoft Office suite will be somewhere at the end of 2013. Again, referring to previous editions of Office, version 2003 is code-named "Office 11" version in 2007 ─ "Office 12" and the version in 2010 ─ "Office 14". The name "Office 13" is absent, and the reason for this can be found in the statement of Microsoft, made several years ago.

In December 2006, Bures, Eric, head of the development team of client applications for Office, said that "13 ─ it bad luck, so that the next release will be called Office 14." Jensen Harris (Jensen Harris), program manager for Team Microsoft Office, also emphasized this point by stating that "13 ─ unlucky number, so we're going to skip Office 13 and then proceed to Office 14." So, despite the logical assumption is that Office 15 will appear in 2013, it is unlikely Microsoft will do it, because the entire 2013 will be held under the shadow of mysterious and terrible number 13 and one can assume that superstitious Microsoft will not release this year which any significant releases.

Thus, there are two further possibilities. Microsoft Office 15 might release around the same time as Windows 8, which is rumored to appear at the end of 2012, or to postpone the announcement until early 2014. More probable is the first option, as is currently the manufacturer louder about the strategy of early development, but at the same time in case of release of Office 15 in 2012, Microsoft developers have to try very hard. For the prestige of Microsoft would be very bad at the same time provide a new operating system and a new office suite.