Microsoft will launch its Office System 2003 suite of products in New York in October, say sources close to the company.

The October date is considerably later than the June launch that many expected earlier this year. But when Microsoft announced in April that it was adding an unexpected beta refresh to its Office 2003 lineup, many expected the final rollout date for the desktop suite and the growing family of related products would slip to fall.

Microsoft officials have continued to insist that Office 2003 will be a "late summer" deliverable.

"We are still on track for a Microsoft Office System RTM (release to manufacturing) later this summer; it will be available to customers later this year," said a corporate spokesman. "That said, Microsoft believes that "quality trumps date" in a beta test, and we will always put a higher priority on doing what's necessary to deliver a quality product."

The spokesman declined to comment on the venue or the actual launch date.

Microsoft could still opt to make product available on a limited basis before officially launching the full Office System. The company often delivers software to its volume-licensing customers and partners before it officially launches them and begins offering shrink-wrapped versions.

The Office 2003 launch is critical for Microsoft. Microsoft has been working on a number of strategies to reinvigorate demand for its core Office suite, as well as to expand its sales opportunities for the suite by making it part of integrated solutions from Microsoft and third party vendors.

Microsoft revealed in March that it would group a number of its information-worker-specific products under a new "Office System" brand. The Office System encompasses the six different Office 2003 editions; FrontPage 2003; One Note 2003; Publisher 2003; Project 2003; Visio 2003; InfoPath 2003; SharePoint Portal Server 2003; and Real Time Communications Server 2003. Exchange Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 are considered "related" Office System products under Microsoft's classification scheme.

Gradually, the myriad pieces of the Office puzzle are falling into place.

One week ago, Microsoft made the interim beta available to 15,000 technical beta testers. But earlier this week, NeoWin.Net reported that Microsoft has opened —inadvertently or not — the Office 2003 technical-refresh floodgates to all 600,000 individuals currently testing the Beta 2 that Microsoft released in March.

There is no word when Microsoft will release its core Office suite to manufacturing.

On Monday of next week, Microsoft will release to manufacturing its Exchange Server 2003 product. The company is expected to release its RTC Server to manufacturing in September, sources say.