Exchange server 2013 Service Pack 1 will be in early 2014

The Exchange Team Blog announced that service pack 1 for the Exchange Server 2013 will be available in early 2014.

Probably this mean Q1 of 2014.

SP1 for Exchange Server 2013 will include below improvements:

• Windows Server 2012 R2 Support - First answering one the most common questions since the release of Windows Server 2012 R2. Exchange 2013 SP1 will add Windows Server 2012 R2 as a supported operating system for Exchange Server 2013 with SP1. Let your planning begin.
• S/MIME support for OWA – Support for S/MIME in OWA will be brought back in SP1. With SP1 customers will have S/MIME support across Outlook, Exchange ActiveSync clients, and OWA.
• Edge Transport Server Role – The Edge Transport server role for Exchange Server 2013 will be available with SP1.
• Fixes and Improvements – Of course, SP1 will include fixes and improvements in areas you’ve helped us identity. SP1 is the first service pack issued in the new Exchange Server cumulative update release model – thus SP1 is essentially CU4. The installation of SP1 will follow the same process as the prior Exchange 2013 CUreleases. SP1 will include all fixes included in previously released cumulative updates for Exchange 2013.

SP1 will require to update Active Directory schema.

Active Directory Schema updates for Exchange are additive and always backwards compatible with previous releases and versions