14 DAY TRIAL // The Beta program for Office 2010 was just as massive as the testing efforts around Windows 7, according to statistics provided by Microsoft. And if the size of the Beta is any indication of the future commercial success of the software, the latest iteration of the Office System is bound to follow in the tracks of Windows 7. Released to Manufacturing on April 15th, 2010, Office 2010 had been test-driven by no less than 7.5 million Beta testers since it was launched at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles in November 2009, Takeshi Numoto, corporate vice president, Microsoft Office, noted.
“RTM is the final engineering milestone of a product release and our engineering team has poured their heart and soul into reaching this milestone. It is also an appropriate time to re-emphasize our sincere gratitude to the more than 5,000 organizations and partners who have worked with us on rapid deployment and testing of the products. Since the start of our public beta in November 2009, we’ve had more than 7.5 million people download the beta version – that’s more than 3 times the number of 2007 beta downloads! The feedback that we’ve received from all these programs has shaped the set of products we’re excited about, and that I’m sure will delight our customers,” Numoto revealed.
By comparison, in excess of eight million copies of Windows 7 had been deployed worldwide since the introduction of the first Beta in January 2009, and until the operating system was released to manufacturing on July 22nd. Windows 7 went on to sell over 90 million copies in less than half a year since the General Availability deadline on October 22nd, the past year.
Office 2010 RTM will be available for download on April 22nd, but only for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Next in line to grab the final Office 2010 bits will be Microsoft Volume License customers with active Software Assurance (SA), who will be offered access to downloads through the Volume Licensing Service Center starting with April 27. All other business customers without SA can get Office 2010 come May 1st. The latest version of Office is scheduled to hit the store shelves in mid-June 2010, with Microsoft having yet to decide on a specific GA date.
Office 2010 Beta 14.0.4536.1000 passed the two-million-download mark at the start of this year. Microsoft also made available a Release Candidate of the productivity suite, but only to a limited number of testers. The Beta of Office 2010 can continue to be used until October 2010. Office 2010 Beta 14.0.4536.1000 is available for download here.