Office 2010 released to manufacturing

Office 2010 code is now finalised

Microsoft's Office 2010 has been released to manufacturing (RTM), as the latest version of the application suite nears its official launch date. SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 have also hit RTM at the same time, according to the firm.

Office 2010 is set to be officially launched to Microsoft business customers at an event on 12 May, but organisations with Software Assurance licence agreements will be able to download all four products from 27 April, Microsoft said.

Other volume licensing customers will be able to purchase the products from Microsoft partners from 1 May, while general availability in retail outlets is set for June. Customers can pre-order from Microsoft's UK's online store.

UK pricing for Office 2010 was disclosed in February. Office Home and Student edition starts at £109.99, Office Home and Business £239.99, and Office Professional £429.99.

Two other editions, Office Standard and Office Professional Plus, will be available only to volume licensing customers.

Microsoft's browser-based Office Web Apps (OWA) will be available for business customers to host on-premise via SharePoint 2010 from May 12.

OWA for consumers will be available at a later date as it this will be delivered via Windows Live and is following the Windows Live development timeline, Microsoft said.

Microsoft also said that more than 7.5 million people have downloaded the beta version of Office since it became available in November 2009.

This is more than three times the number of downloads for the Office 2007 beta, according to Microsoft corporate vice president Takeshi Numoto, writing on the official blog of the Office product development group.