On the Microsoft 2010 Engineering Blog, they've posted this:
"For businesses, we will launch the 2010 set of products, including Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010 worldwide on May 12." "For consumers, Office 2010 will be available online and on retail shelves this June."
This means if you're company jumps on all the latest Microsoft products, May could be an exciting time for you.
If you're still languishing in Office 2003, just pretend nothing is happening.
If you're still on Office 2000, find someone to hug.
I think the only group that really cares about the release date is book publishers. They're committed to have those books in the stores on the release date.
It's not like your average Excel user is really looking forward to replacing that big round "Office" button with a "File" tab.
I would disagree with John. The people who stand the most are software sales people (Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples et al) and pc manufacturers who load the 90 day trial versions on unsold pcs.
Most companies don't move to the latest version of office products until it is out for awhile. Like day old bread. My company just got office 2007.
Office 2002 here, being upgrade to 2007 in the next few months. I wonder whether it'll happen before or after 2010 is released.
Still, it's nothing new to our firm – we're always two or three versions (not just years) behind the latest version releases of all software.