What the Office team will be talking about at CES

Heading into the new year, the Microsoft Office team is motivated more than ever by what we’re hearing about customers’ experiences with Office 2010. Many people think Office is just for the workplace, but millions of people are using Office at home, at school and for their small businesses to get things done. For instance:

  • According to the NPD Group, Office Home and Student was the number one selling PC software product -- including games! -- at retail in the U.S. during the week of Black Friday 2009.
  • Office Home and Student was one of Amazon.com’s top 3 Hot Holiday Bestseller software products in 2009.

Meanwhile the Office 2010 beta is generating record interest and use, surpassing the previous Office 2007 beta download rate. In just seven weeks, more than two million people around the world have downloaded and are using the Office 2010 beta. To get a better appreciation for that number, it’s a rate of more than 40,000 downloads per day. That’s approximately twice the number of people who run the Boston Marathon each year, or the entire population of Olympia, WA, or Annapolis, MD, downloading the Office 2010 beta every day!

Most importantly, 9 out of 10 beta users feel that the Office 2010 beta is an improvement over their current productivity suite.

How much will Office 2010 cost?

In addition to the great momentum statistics, we are also releasing Office 2010 U.S. retail pricing today. Office 2010 will be offered in four versions, to make it easier to choose a version of Office that’s best for you – Office Home and Business, Office Professional, Office Home and Student, and Office Professional Academic. Here’s a chart that outlines the features and pricing for each version.

Version Boxed Product Product Key Card
Office Home and Student $149 $119
Office Home and Business $279 $199
Office Professional $499 $349
Office Professional Academic $99 N/A
  • Office Home and Student boxed product is available in a Family Pack, allowing usage on three PCs in one house
  • Purchase rights for Office Home and Business, Office Professional, and Office Professional Academic boxed product allow for usage on two of your PCs.
  • The Product Key Card is valid for a single installation of the product.

Or click here to download a more detailed guide to each edition.

We’re committed to making Office 2010 the best productivity suite ever, and making it easier for everyone to try, buy and use Office.

Rachel Bondi, General Manager, Microsoft Office

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    There is only one reason I have not upgraded to Word 2007, and I really hope you bring back the feature that I most need from Word 2003. I would like to suggest strongly that the developers bring back the "save versions" feature to Word.  As a writer, this is one of the features that is most important to me because I need to save old drafts of what I write.  Often I find that I have changed something and that it might have been better in an older draft, and with saved versions it was easy to find these. Yes, there is an alternative with shadow copy and automatic daily backups (both of which I use), but these are not good alternatives.  First, with saved versions I have titles of the versions so I know which one to get, whereas I usually can't remember dates.  Secondly, I often want to save more than one draft in a day, making backup and shadow copies useless because they miss many drafts.   The old alternative of saving multiple copies of files, for each draft, clogs my folders.  I will often save ten or more drafts of articles I write--a real headache to manage myself. First, could you please let me know if this feature will return?  Second, could someone let me know how to contact the Word 2010 developers to tell them about this important issue?  There are many academics and other writers like myself who depend on this feature, but recent changes to Word seemed aimed only at business people (though I'm guessing many of them would like to save versions as well). Thank you very much, Jeff

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Will there be upgrade pricing from Office 2007? If not, then that would be a major marketing blunder.

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    If you need this info in FRENCH, go there : http://blogs.technet.com/backstage_2010/archive/2010/01/05/office-2010-premier-prix.aspx La même info en FRANCAIS et plus de 100 autres billets se trouvent sur le blog officiel Office 2010 : http://blogs.technet.com/backstage_2010/archive/2010/01/05/office-2010-premier-prix.aspx

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    SharePoint Workspace are not included in any of the packages.  Will these two application need to be purchased separate from Office 2010 Professional or will their be Professional Plus (as that is what the beta is at this moment)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    But what is still not clear is what is Professional Academic? Obviously it's an academic SKU but does it have activation too? Does it include the same apps as Professional? Any more info on it? Why doesn't no retail SKU include Visio and InfoPath? InfoPath WAS available in Office "Ultimate". And people have been asking forever to include Visio in some SKU.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    How much will Office 2010 Family Pack cost?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    What, no "Office Azure"??  :-)

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    When is the planned release date for the Middle East?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    why is it that the Professional Academic costs more then Home and Student? Home and Student comes with Word, Excel and OneNote. THAT'S the one Microsoft should be selling cheap, since it's designed for the basic home and student use. THIS is what drives people towards open source, as well as pirating, Microsoft.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    Is Office 2010 64 bit?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    When looking at the Word document (Office2010PricingFS.doc) I noticed that InfoPath and SharePoint Workspace are not included in any of the packages.  Will these two application need to be purchased separate from Office 2010 Professional or will their be Professional Plus (as that is what the beta is at this moment).  

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    What about upgrade pricing?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    @Jeremy Bicha Office Home and Student ($149) is the only version of Office 2010 that is available in a Family Pack, allowing usage on 3 PCs in one household.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    Where is the pricing for InfoPath 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010..?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    HEY! What about upgrade pricing? Office always had upgrade pricing!!! I realize the retail prices have been reduced but this means there is no separate upgrade pricing?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    "Most importantly, 9 out of 10 beta users feel that the Office 2010 beta is an improvement over their current productivity suite." In other news, 9 out of 10 beta users were able to recognize that the number on their software was higher than the one they were used to.  The remaining user currently did not use a productivity suite. Thank goodness that Open Office continues to work just fine.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    With a single product key card, will be still be able to install another copy on my laptop (Office always had that: "You may install another copy on a portable device for use by the single primary user of the licensed device." If not, more than one license prices have gotten expensive.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    I have always used Pro SKU since I need Access. Earlier I upgraded from Office 2003 Professional to Office 2007 Professional for $279. I installed one copy on my desktop and other on my laptop as the license permits "one portable device". Now even if I spend $349, I can get single Pro SKU? Can I install it on my laptop or do I have to shell out $499 (as against $279?) That's $220 extra just for acquiring 2 Pro copies? Please clarify.

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    ANY chance we might get Academic or at least Starter edition on DreamSpark?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    I am confused as to why Publisher only offered in big "Pro" versions. In our home, my middle-school children often use it to create fun greeting cards for friends, or do minor graphic banners. Since MS took away our beloved Digital Image suite, the only remaining similar product was Publisher. Doesn't make sense for it to be available in Pro version only!?

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    Open office, anybody? http://www.openoffice.org/

  • Anonymous
    January 05, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2010
    That's not a bad price at all for the Student and Home edition versions of Microsoft Office. I have been using the 2010 beta and have to say that it runs exceptionally well for a beta, and does a fine job with allowing me to work with all versions of Office and all types of different Excel/Word applications. Keep up the good work Microsoft Office development team.

  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2010
    Where's the Mac version?

  • Anonymous
    January 06, 2010
    Alan Yes, Office 2010 will come in both 32 bit and 64 bit editions.  This has announced widely months ago. Tony

  • Anonymous
    January 07, 2010
    “Meanwhile the Office 2010 beta is generating record interest and use, surpassing the previous Office 2007 beta download rate.” That’s mainly because it’s free license. Things would be really different when paying money is involved.

  • Anonymous
    January 07, 2010
    Microsoft - follow Adobe's example and market your consumer grade home products at price points that make them easy to buy. Maybe <$100. Open source is real attractive and very reliable. mkp www.digitalgrandparent

  • Anonymous
    January 08, 2010
    When will it be released in Asia? And recommended retail price please.

  • Anonymous
    January 08, 2010
    with warmest and kindest hello to our Office team Respectfully kindy get Ready to release the Microsoft Office 2010 on time  ( date we said on last e-mail)... Kindest Regards Ali Abedinzadeh Pishbin

  • Anonymous
    January 09, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 09, 2010
    jorgusch said:"However, I see that the student version does no longer contain Outlook....so you got me in with 2007 and now I am out?" Home and Student Office 2007 does not include Outlook.

  • Anonymous
    January 10, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 10, 2010
    Am I charged for the trial version of microsoft office 2010 beta and how long does the trial last.

  • Anonymous
    January 11, 2010
    Liebe Leute, bis es soweit ist und ich ALLE SEKTOREN und auch das Persönliche Profil dazu, werde ich mir ganz bestimmt Mühe geben, denn ich suche eine liebe und Treue, wie Weltoffene Frau, die noch weiss- wie ROMANTIK- überhaupt noch Funktioniert?!! Wie auch immer darüber hinaus, will ich hiermit zum Ausdruck bringen, das es in dieser Kurzen Zeit, die man allg. hat zu Beeinflussen; und das war ein Fehler, den ich innerlich immer noch Teuer am Bezahlen bin èè Mit freundlichen Grüssen: Daniel Schweizer sen.(- Geb. 01.01.1966 -)

  • Anonymous
    January 11, 2010
    I'm reading a lot of reports via the web that upgrade pricing has been discontinued.   If this is true, I strongly urge Microsoft rethink this strategy, or at least explain why this is the case.  

  • Anonymous
    January 19, 2010
    Pricing will be what ever Microsoft wants it to be. They are too big to sway with this simple blog. What I want to know is. If I install the beta version and decide to use it with active data, will the beta license extend until the retail version is released or will the beta version die before the final release along with my email and other data? I am willing to give the beta version a "FULL ON" test but only if I can continue to the paid version without a lapse in licensing.

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2010
    I think That's not a bad price at all for the Student and Home edition versions of Microsoft Office.but some application are not included in it.Will these application need to be purchased separately.

  • Anonymous
    February 07, 2010
    hai

  • Anonymous
    February 08, 2010
    is it a 64 bit?

  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2010
    OK. Look, I could get the Office Professional 2010. But, Microsoft decided it would cost way over $250. That is way to expensive for me. Although for the Professional Acedamic Version, I do have some Acdademic purposes for it. I believe that Microsoft dosen't put enough programs in the Home and Student Edition. I need Outlook, Publisher, and Access. In Home and Student I don't get them. That's why I don't want Home and Student.

  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2010
    I was wondering what a Microsoft Office volume license would cost for a business with 50 employees.  Does anyone have any information on this?  Thanks.

  • Anonymous
    March 23, 2010
    So Microsoft want small business PC shops like ours to pre-install a trial version of Office 2010 that can be activated with an OEM (PKC) card purchased at a large discount store? Where's the incentive to pre-load our new PCs with the Office 2010 trial?  An extra 30-60 mins per PC, particularly once the service packs start to roll out. MS want us to spend more time building each PC so they can make more money via our larger competitors?   Our incentive would be to sell the customer the full retail version, which can be installed on 2 PCs (3 with H&S), and transferred to other computers in the future.  Better long-term value for our customers, better revenue for us. PKC spells the death of OEM sales.  Nice one Microsoft. Flawed logic to the extreme.

  • Anonymous
    April 12, 2010
    Right now I am using Office 2007, I would like to buy this office Family Pack 2010 but when are they going to launch this package.

  • Anonymous
    April 27, 2010
    I think MS Office 2009 is enough for me but MS office 2010 is not bad choice for who start to use Office .

  • Anonymous
    May 14, 2010
    You need the Home and Student Edition to get what you want at the best price. Normal price is $150. You can find it on sale from time to time. If you are a student and have a .edu email address you can go to www.theultimatesteal.com and get the Ultimate Package for about $60.

  • Anonymous
    May 28, 2010
    how much is office pro 2010 for 5 users?

  • Anonymous
    July 16, 2010
    I personally like Zoho. http://www.zoho.com . More free products than Google and they are easier to find.

  • Anonymous
    August 14, 2010
    I can't believe there is no upgrade pricing!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    September 02, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    September 02, 2010
    The comment has been removed