Today, June 15, Microsoft is announcing the availability of Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010, and Microsoft Project 2010. Microsoft Office has been the number one selling software product for the past 7 years, even outselling games. Almost 10 million people downloaded the Office 2010 beta, which is almost 7 times the number who participated in the Office 2007 beta.
You can now buy Office in over 35,000 retail stores around the world, through online stores like Amazon, and from Office.com. In the next year, more than 100 million PCs will ship with Office 2010 preloaded with activation being as easy as buying one of the available versions: Office Home and Student 2010, Office Home and Business 2010, or Office Professional 2010.
“Working with major retail partners and PC makers, we’ve made dramatic changes in the way we deliver Office 2010 to give consumers more buying choice, making it easier than ever to unlock the power of Office on new and existing PCs. For the first time, people can purchase a Product Key Card at retail to activate Office 2010 preloaded on new PCs. For those who want to download Office 2010 direct from Office.com for an existing PC, the new Click-to-Run technology will have them up and running in a matter of minutes.” -Stephen Elop, president, Microsoft Business Division.
Recent data shows that Office is running on more than 1 billion computers across the globe, making it the most widely used productivity suite on the planet. Office 2010 leapfrogs previous versions, tapping into the cloud and revamping the interface to provide a better experience for customers. They continued to enhance the software based on customer feedback from the beta. This brings us a suite that makes it easy to:
- Create great looking documents and presentations
- Connect and collaborate more easily by integrating with the social web
- Get things done from virtually by leveraging the cloud
A survey of Office 2010 beta users shows that about 75 percent of them plan to buy Office 2010. By making such drastic improvements in Office 2010, expanding distribution channels, and making it available to download, Microsoft expects this will be the biggest release of Office ever.