After looking around MSDN subscriber downloads for App-V downloads, I noticed that something new had been posted there just yesterday… and it looks like App-V 5.0 RTM is out now (as part of MDOP 2012 package)!
This is indeed a surprise, as there has not been any sort of release candidate after the last beta, released already last summer. But official bits are there now and you can download it and start playing around with it. Additionally, there seems to be official documentation live as well in the Technet site, publishing date today.
As many of you know, the (App-V) product has undergone some major changes since the previous release (4.6 SP1), re-doing both the underlying implementation as well as the UI for both client and the server -side. Packaging process is still pretty much the same, but of course now instead of getting those “legacy” package files, we get a nice .APPV file along with couple of deployment configuration XML files.
Kalle Saunamäki
Gridmetric Blog 
01.11.2012 at 15:52
So…. When there will be 5.0 support in AVE?
01.11.2012 at 16:32
We have targeted Q1/2013 for App-V 5.0 support for Lib-V and AVE.
16.11.2012 at 01:08
Is that the same timeframe for the Virtualization Encoder?
16.11.2012 at 09:39
Thanks for the question,
At this moment, we have not yet made a decision for App-V 5.0 support for Virtualization Encoder. We will be making an announcement later on regarding the matter when the product plans are clear for VE.