Microsoft Office product logos

2010 was a remarkable year for Office. First came Office 2010, which launched in June along with the all-new Office Web Apps. Then Office Mobile for Windows Phone 7 launched in November - a whopper of a productivity experience across the PC, phone, and browser. And we didn't ignore the social networking movement: The Outlook Social Connector let customers connect social networks to Outlook 2010, and we integrated with Facebook so customers could share and open Office documents from directly within Facebook. A busy year indeed!

January 2011 marks the 6-month milestone for Office 2010 and the Office Web Apps, which makes CES the perfect time and place to update everyone on how we're doing, and--most important--to highlight a few Office 2010 customers, one of whom is here with us.

We've been getting a lot of questions about the uptake of Office 2010 and the Office Web Apps, so first and foremost, let's look at the numbers.

  • More than 30 million people use the Office Web Apps to view, edit, and share Office documents from anywhere with a browser and an internet connection.
  • Office 2010 now ranks as the fastest-selling consumer version of Office in history, with approximately one copy of Office 2010 sold worldwide every second.
  • For the 8th year in a row, Microsoft Office was the number one selling software product in U.S. retail measured by dollar volume, outpacing games and security software.

Without a doubt, we're delighted by the numbers that show Office 2010's success thus far, but it's our customers and their success that put the icing on the cake.

Putting the "Real" in Real Life Stories, this video introduces three of Office 2010's most esteemed customers who are truly "Making It Great" with Office 2010 at home, school and at work. Devin Pastoor, featured in the video, is a graduate student at NC State University and part-time tennis coach, and is making his presence known at CES, sharing how he's using Office 2010 and the Office Web Apps to be successful in and out of the classroom.

If you're at CES, come by the Microsoft booth and look us up. We'll be showing off all the great enhancements we've made to well-known applications, but in particular, we're spotlighting OneNote 2010 - a hidden gem, and likely the best Office application that you're not yet using.

-- Jevon Fark, from CES 2011