PowerPoint, originally called Presentation, was developed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin and renamed in 1987 due to a trademark issue. It has maintained a dominant market share of approximately 95% in presentation software since becoming popular in the early 1990s. Despite criticisms of over-reliance on slides, PowerPoint is still widely used, with 500 million users globally creating about 30 million presentations daily.

1. POWERPOINT &
BUSINESS
INTERESTING NOTES ON A
SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
PowerPoint was introduced as a business graphics package for managers,
professionals and sales people. You probably use it regularly, but do you really
know the product? Here, we illustrate some interesting facts and figures about
PowerPoint; how it came to be and what is has become…
Sources: BBC News, Microsoft, RobertGaskins.com

2. BRAINCHILD
POWERPOINT
WAS CREATED BY
ROBERT
GASKINS
DENNIS
AUSTIN
It was originally called Presentation but
changed to PowerPoint in 1987 because of a
trademark issue

3. FIRST
1992
THE FIRST
PUBLIC LAPTOP
PRESENTATION
WAS DELIVERED TO
MICROSOFT EMPLOYEES
(In Paris)

4. LEADER
BY
1993
POWERPOINT WAS THE
MARKET LEADER
IN PC PRESENTATION
PROGRAMMES

5. MARKET SHARE
95%
20 years later,
PowerPoint
continues to
dominate with
an estimated
95% share of the
presentation
software market

6. DID YOU KNOW?
In the first instance,
PowerPoint was developed
for Mac when Gaskins &
Austin worked for
Forethought.
Microsoft bought
Forethought in 1987 for $14
million
Apple then waited until 2003
before releasing Keynote

7. HOW MANY?
THERE ARE
500
MILLION
POWERPOINT USERS
WORLDWIDE

8. DAILY
BUSINESSES GLOBALLY MAKE
30 M LL ON
POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
PER DAY

9. WORDY
The average PowerPoint slide contains 40 words
(There are 39 on the featured slide)

10. CRITICISMS INCLUDE
THE
PRESENTATION
IS OFTEN
THE FOCUS RATHER THAN THE
AUDIENCE
Too many presenters use slides as speakers notes, relying on bullet-points as a prompt

11. GOOGLE
13,100,000
SEARCH RESULTS GENERATED FOR
‘DEATH BY POWERPOINT’
(IN 0.33 SECONDS)
But, used properly, PowerPoint can be the impressive graphic sales tool that it was always
intended to be…
… this SlideShare, for example, was made using PowerPoint

12. To learn more about effective business communication
with PowerPoint, visit:
www.activepresence.com/powerpoint-presentations/