INFOGRAPHIC: PowerPoint and Business
PowerPoint shares a special relationship with business. If you have been in any way involved in business during the last 25 years, chances are you will have sat through more than your fair share of PowerPoint presentations. Perhaps you have delivered more than a few, too.
How well do you know the product? We have produced an infographic detailing the special relationship PowerPoint shares with business, focusing primarily on how it came to be and what it has become.
Click to enlarge the infographic
PowerPoint and business: the key points
PowerPoint was created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin. It was originally called Presentation but changed to PowerPoint in 1987 because of a trademark issue.
The first public laptop presentation was delivered in Paris to Microsoft employees in 1992. By the following year, PowerPoint had become the market leader in PC presentation software. Today, PowerPoint continues to dominate with an estimated 95% share of the presentation software market.
Interestingly, PowerPoint was originally developed for the Apple Macintosh. Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin began work on the product at US company Forethought. Microsoft bought Forethought in 1987 for $14 million. Apple only released Keynote in 2003.
There are 500 million PowerPoint users worldwide and businesses globally make an estimated 30 million PowerPoint presentations per day.
The average PowerPoint slide contains 40 words. This perhaps goes some way to explain why PowerPoint is not universally loved. ‘Death by PowerPoint’ generates 13,100,000 search results on Google. The biggest criticism of PowerPoint is that presentations are boring and full of bullet points. The presentation itself can often be the main focus rather than the audience. Too many presenters use slides as prompt notes, relying on bullet-points to get them through their material.
Used properly, however, PowerPoint can be the impressive graphic sales tool that it was always intended to be. For hints and tips on how to use PowerPoint for more effective business communication, download your copy of ‘PowerPoint Presentation Ideas’ from our free advice library today.
