Full parity between the on-premise versions of Office, Lync, SharePoint and Exchange and their online counterparts may not be possible, but there is an opportunity to narrow the functionality gap that exists today, Osterman said.

"Microsoft should align both more closely," he said.

The company can also do more to simplify life for IT administrators who have to manage users on both Office 365 and the on-premise versions of its components, Karcher said.

"I'm sure Microsoft will make the management of that deployment easier for IT," he said.

Ultimately, the question will be whether Office 2013 offers consumers and enterprises enough compelling reasons to expend the effort and money on upgrading.