SOLVED: Lync 2010 Error – A newer version of Lync is installed. Please uninstall it before installing this product

The solution (assuming you have already uninstalled lync, or never had it) is to go through the registry and delete the two or three references to Lync_CoreFiles:

1. Click START > RUN,  type regedit.exe and press the ENTER key
2. Click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER (as HKCR contains no references)
3. Click EDIT > SEARCH and type in Lync_CoreFiles then press the ENTER key
4. Delete any keys relating to Lync
5. Try the install again.  You do NOT have to reboot

Note that the install log can be found %userprofile%\tracing\OCBoot.log and it is quite small and reads like plain english.

This appears to be an issue with Office 2013 installs.   I have Office 2013 installed without Lync on Windows 8 AND Office 2013 installed WITH Lync 2013 on Windows 7.  Even after an uninstall of Lync this error occured.  I needed to clean the registry of the LYNC_COREFILES entries. 

To give credit, where credit is due, I found http://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/166/p/65551/252428.aspx#252428 to be handy.