Update: Office 2010 public beta could show in November

UPDATE: Microsoft backtracks, says Office 2010 beta will be public

Neowin already reported that Office 2010 Beta 1 due in early July will not be available for public testing. Now Microsoft has confirmed that it will indeed not release a public beta of Office 2010 for testing, to the general public and will limit the Technical Preview to a group of thousands of invite-only users starting in the third quarter of 2009. The second beta is due in early November and it is not clear whether Microsoft will open it to the general public.

"The technology preview, as Microsoft will call the beta program, will involve 'thousands of users'. At this point there is no plan. (to offer the beta to the general public) ".

Office 2010 Beta will be given to workers in Microsoft's largest corporate accounts as well as run-of-the-mill consumers. It has already been confirmed that Microsoft will ship both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Office 2010 and is expected to be released during the first half of 2010.