Office 2007: 120 Million Licenses Shipped
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News Analysis. Vista may claim 180 million licenses shipped, but Office 2007 probably has more deployments. |
Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's Business division, revealed the sales figures during the company's annual Financial Analysts Meeting today. There have been "120 million licenses sold since the launch of Office 2007," he asserted.
Microsoft also uses "sold" to refer to Vista "shipments." But "sold" might better describe Office 2007. New PCs ship with Vista, whereas Office 2007 must be separately acquired. One is a choice, the other is not. And many enterprises are choosing to strip off Vista for Windows XP.
Stephen said 90 percent of enterprises will have deployed Office 2007 by mid-2009. Whoa, that's impressive. Analyst projections put Vista enterprise adoption more like 10 to as much as 15 percent in the same time frame.
Stephen also briefly spoke about Office 14, the productivity suite's next version. Microsoft demoed part of the suite for its sales and marketing staff last week. For a moment, a pause made it seem like he might give some indication when the software would be released. Instead, he said that Office 14 would follow the "same general wavelength of releases."
My guess: Microsoft will try to align Office 14 and Windows 7 releases, as was done with Office 2007 and Vista. Who knows, maybe there will be some real synergy between the products, something lacking in the last release cycle.
Stephen rattled off some pretty convincing statistics on the health of the Business division, which grew 15 percent in fiscal 2008 and posted a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent for the four years ended June 30. Stephen forecast revenue growth of 14 percent to 15 percent in fiscal 2009.
Perhaps pushed by Office 2007, "our enterprise renewal rate was well over 90 percent in Q4," he said about volume-licensing contracts.
Other stats for fiscal 2008:
Stephen reflected on his six months at Microsoft: "I have spent much of my career competing against Microsoft." Stephen worked at Lotus, Macromedia and Adobe.
"I have been incredibly impressed with the Microsoft ecosystem," he said. As a former competitor, Stephen said he could appreciate Microsoft's "tenacity." Stephen also said he is impressed with "Microsoft's intellectual integrity."
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Comments (15)
Joe your reporting here was awesome because it captured a lot of what is missed when describing an operation as large and with as much reach as MS.
MS is just real people working together creating products. They are not evil and bent on doing bad things to the industry. As a former competitor Stephen's comments underscore that, and really should be a lesson and reminder that behind the mighty MS moniker, is a company only as good as its talent,drive, and people.
Posted by TK | July 24, 2008 9:46 PM
IMHO Office 2007 is a MAJOR improvement on Office 2003 so I gladly paid for it. I have stuck with XP by contrast because Vista offers no real improvement and lots of problems that have been amply documented everywhere.
If we can use Office 2007, IE7, windows search, defender, sidebars, etc etc (ie pretty much all the benefits of Vista)on XP without any of the Vista problems why on earth would most users bother to pay for Vista.
However unless the next version of Office is a similar MAJOR improvement then it will probably not be worth upgrading to and Office 2007 will probably do most users just fine.
Posted by mark | July 25, 2008 6:38 AM
Yes, Office 2007 is awesome. The more I use it, the more difficult I find it to use previous versions. Normally I purchase every other version of Office, but Office 2007 was such a huge improvement, and longer time coming, so I bought it when it first came out.
And Mark reiterates what I have been saying for some time now. With a fully updated and patched XP with good free extras like Windows Defender, AVG 8, WMP 11, IE7, FF3 and the Vista-like Windows Live versions of Mail, Photo Gallery, and Writer, Vista has nothing of any substantial value over XP.
UAC? Right, like that is worth upgrading for. I set my daughter, who is 17, up as a limited user with XP on her PC. Every once in awhile, she comes to me and asks me to install a program. I like that. It allows me to investigate the program first and ensure it has no malware. Then I download it, run it through AVG, and only then install it. Back when I had her set up as an administrator, I had to format and redo her PC at least every 3 months (But thank heavens for Norton Ghost). Since her PC doesn't screw up as much, she never complains about being a limited user.
So, I say, if you have an XP PC, absolutely do not upgrade to Vista. That would be a huge waste of money. The only thing Vista is decent on is a new high-end PC, and then you will have it pre-installed anyway.
Posted by Bob Maine | July 25, 2008 8:47 AM
Awesome is indeed the word for Office 2007, and brilliant is the word for the crew who came up with the ribbon and the process they used to design and perfect it. I'm an ex-MS employee, but also an ex- of competitors and Microsoft is indeed an awesome engine with great resources and motivation that you don't see inside those other companies. I'd return to work for Stephen Elop or that type of leader there in a heartbeat.
Posted by JWFisher | July 25, 2008 10:59 AM
Joe;
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. MS Office 2007 is the Bomb! I've been a major user of Microsoft Office since the death of WordStar and SuperCalc 5.5. Yes back in the day of Office 97 when I really flew in it.
I use Office 2007 and loved it the moment I received it. The ribbon took about a couple of hours to get used to, but the power in this suite is outstanding.
Every other office suite out there pales in comparison especially with form and function, real world productivity, and enterprise level office applications.
Posted by Douglas S. Taylor | July 25, 2008 1:48 PM
I can't believe you speak with such a biased tone towards two successful, powerful and well received Microsoft products. Its ok to say 120 million 'licenses' for Office 2007 sold, but not for Windows Vista? What gives Joe? Its quite obvious you are not in your right senses. People love Windows Vista and its features and are deploying it, realizing the benefits from the integrated search, strong security, backup and organization tools. Businesses as always will have a more unpredictable approach to deploying software, it has happened in the past ironically enough. When Windows 2000 was released, Companies stuck with Windows NT 4 for a long time, the same happened with Windows XP, companies stuck with Windows 2000 for a long time and continue to do so. History is repeating it self and I would just call it business as usual. Windows Vista will be adopted in all facets in which PC's are used. So your ideas of doom and gloom are nowhere in sight.
Posted by Andre Da Costa | July 26, 2008 1:14 PM
Andre, Are you still smoking crack? You must be. What department do you work in at microshaft? everyone here would like to know office 07 sux just as bad as Vista No plans ever to use I'v tried both
months back and have been removed.
OH Tell Bald Boob Ballmer Monkey boy TCY said hey
Posted by TCY | July 26, 2008 5:16 PM
I agree with the rest of the comments.
Office 2007 is genius and the designer who is now assigned to Windows 7 has a great future ahead of her. Few could improve what many said was unimprovable.
Posted by BlahBlah | July 26, 2008 11:55 PM
I win! ,I win!
Who is the King?
I am, I am.
I am Neil, TC, Taylor,all them
motherfockers Linux lovers
At the end I winnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha, hahahaha, hahahaha.
Posted by Neil | July 27, 2008 9:30 PM
@Andre
Sorry about my last post. I was way outta line on that one to think that you are smoking crack. I realize that you love Microsoft and that's basically okay, I mean whatever floats your twig.
I will never go the way of Microsoft, though I will learn to acknowledge other people's opinions, though I may not agree with them personally, still, everyone has a right.
Again, sorry for that childish response from me.
Posted by TCY | July 27, 2008 10:47 PM
I guess I'm in the minority. I've been a self admitted fanboy of MS since 95 and I bought Vista as soon as it arrived in the stores (and have loved it). I tried Office 2007 for a few months but never warmed up to it. I didn't care much for the interface, but the real deal breaker was removing Outlook from the home version.
Posted by Robguy | July 28, 2008 3:24 AM
@Robguy
No kidding, no Outlook in the home version????
That is bad. I guess that's why I always went with the professional version, at least try to anyways.
Yeah, the new look threw a lot of people off track but many of them learned to embrace it. One thing Microsoft did was allow the user to customize the toolbar.
Posted by DamianThorne (The Real one) | July 28, 2008 8:48 AM
Its OK TCY.
Posted by Andre Da Costa | July 28, 2008 6:00 PM
Anybody buying Office is a lemming. What a waste of money when OpenOffice does all that and more for free.
Posted by Mike Nelson | July 28, 2008 9:48 PM
Impressive stats for fiscal 2008 from the president of Microsoft's Business division! Almost as impressive as the number of Big Macs McDonalds has sold worldwide. Any clown knows that McDonalds sells so many Big Macs because the Big Mac is the best option out there for people looking for a delicious and nutritious meal.
Posted by CRR | July 30, 2008 10:11 AM