14 DAY TRIAL // After Office 2010 was released to manufacturing last week, on April 22, 2010, MSDN and TechNet subscribers got the chance to download the RTM bits of the productivity suite. Microsoft will only offer Office 2010 in June, although the company has yet to say the exact general availability (GA) deadline. Copies of Office 2010 RTM have already leaked in the wild, but customers are advised to steer clear of illegal third-party sources, including torrent trackers. I have included a mass of screenshots below, to give users a taste of what the successor of Office 2007 brings to the table.
Softpedia readers already know that I did the same with previous development milestones of Office 2010. The screenshot galleries for the Beta released in November 2009, and the limited Release Candidate Build offered earlier this year continue to be available even at this point in time. Users will be able to compare the RTM version of Office 2010 with the Beta and RC builds, and witness first-hand the evolution of the productivity suite.
To this day, there have been in excess of 7.5 million downloads of Office 2010 pre-release builds, making the Beta testing program for the productivity suite almost as popular as that for Windows 7, which accounted for over 8 million downloads in the half a year it took Microsoft to go from Beta to RTM.
Come April 27, the software giant will start making Office 2010 available for purchase. Volume Licensed customers with Software Assurance will be the first to get the product, with other businesses, lacking SA, getting access as of the start of May. As I’ve said above, Office 2010 will only hit store shelves in June 2010.
“We on the Office team are excited to be releasing Microsoft Office 2010. We believe we’ve raised the bar again and delivered the best productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser. It is the result of constant, in-depth research and analysis of feedback and data that we receive from our half-billion customers like you around the world. With each version we have two primary objectives: 1) Build on the essentials you use today and 2) create tools that anticipate your changing needs. In that spirit, Office 2010 makes common tasks easier and faster, while bringing new tools that we believe will become the essentials of your work tomorrow,” reads an excerpt from the official Office 2010 RTM product guide.
Office 2010 pricing details
Microsoft plans to charge $149 for the boxed version of Office Home and Student. Similarly, the retail flavors of Office Home and Business, Office Professional and Office Professional Academic will come with price tags of $279, $499, and $99, respectively. Microsoft is already allowing customers to pre-order the three editions of Office 2010 mentioned above via various online outlets, including the Microsoft Store.
This is also the first time that the Redmond-based company has extended Office 2010 into the Cloud. Office Web Apps are web-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, offered for free via Windows Live SkyDrive. At the same time, business users can license Office Web Apps to run them in their organization’s IT environment, but only in conjunction with SharePoint Foundation 2010.
Customers acquiring new OEM PCs will also find that the machines come with a free copy of Office 2010 pre-installed. Microsoft has worked with original equipment manufacturers in order to have the Starter edition of Office 2010 shipping on new computers. The Starter SKU is a stripped down version of Office 2010, free but add-supported, from which users can easily opt to upgrade to a fully-fledged edition of the suite. In this sense, major retailers will offer what Microsoft calls Product Key Cards. Customers with Office 2010 already preinstalled on their computers will be able to buy Product Key Cards and easily upgrade to Office Home & Student 2010, Office Home & Business 2010, and Office Professional 2010, for $119, $199 and $349, respectively.
