Microsoft offers Exchange 2010 beta, Office 2010 timeline

Microsoft has started giving more details on the next version of its productivity line of products. The suite will debut next year as Office 2010, shipping in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, and will include browser-based versions of its main applications that can run on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari as well. Exchange Server 2010 will be released a bit earlier however, in the second half of this year, and it is actually available now as a public beta download in what Microsoft describes as the “next wave of Office-related products.”

The updated software will bring a number of enhancements over its predecessor, Exchange 2007. These will include a consistent Outlook experience across PC, mobile phone and browser as well as a new email archiving functionality, a MailTips feature to prevent sending erroneous email, text-based voicemail previews and more.

The rest of its Office related applications, including Office 2010, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010, are due for a technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and release in the first half of 2010. A pretty vague timeframe, for sure, but that’s what Microsoft is willing to share for now.