Office 2010 reaches RTM

Last week, Microsoft reached the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) milestone for Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010. What does that mean?

• April 27th—Volume License customers with active Software Assurance (SA) will be able to download the products via the Volume Licensing Service Center. 
• May 1st—Customers without SA will be able to purchase the new products through Volume Licensing from Microsoft partners.
• May 12th—Microsoft will officially launch Office 2010 to business customers with Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft’s Business Division, delivering a keynote as part of a virtual launch at http://www.the2010event.com.
• June—Office 2010 will become available in U.S. retail stores, but you can pre-order retail versions of Office 2010 at http://store.microsoft.com/OfficePreorder.