Last week Microsoft Office Live Workspace was at CES 2008 in Las Vegas, the world’s largest tradeshow for consumer technology. If you have never been there, CES is a dream-come-true for technology lovers and geeks, with over 20,000 new products being introduced ranging from the tiniest Bluetooth headset to a massive 150 inch High Definition Plasma TV. Microsoft showcased consumer technology from across the company, including Microsoft Auto , Zune, Surface, Windows Vista, Windows Live, Microsoft Mediaroom, Windows Mobile, Windows Media Center, Windows Home Server, Office 2007 … and Office Live Workspace.

As a Product Manager, there is nothing more rewarding than meeting with customers, listening to their stories, helping them with problems, and showing off new products. Sixteen of us (Kim, Marlowe, Anne, Jeff, Amber, Tammy, Christy, Eric, Michael, Baris, Justin, Kirk, Evan, Matthias, Skip, and me) demonstrated Office Live Workspace to thousands of customers until we were hoarse.

People really liked it and saw how it would make their lives easier: “I work with 25 different vendors and can create a workspace for each vendor”, “I would use this to share files with my wife”, “My business is expanding and this will help communication”…

The most frequently asked questions were…

• Do I need to have Office 2007 to use Office Live Workspace? (Answer: no, you don’t even need Microsoft Office. But we do have nice integration with Office XP, 2003 and 2007)
• How much storage do I get? (Answer: 500 MB, which is enough for more than a thousand average-sized Office documents)
• How safe is it? (Answer: a workspace can only be accessed with a Windows Live ID and password. You have complete control over who can view or edit your documents)
• Is this really free? And will it stay free? (Answer: yes. And yes – we might sell add-ons later or include advertising)

Of course, tech lovers at CES also had good suggestions, like…

• I want a set of folders to sync automatically with Office Live Workspace. 
• I want to see my Outlook contacts and calendar in Office Live Workspace. 
• I want to access my workspaces from my cell phone.

The Office Live Workspace engineering team is already working hard on new features and improvements. Keep watching this blog to learn about changes to Office Live Workspace.  

If you attended CES 2008, I would love to hear what your favorite products of CES 2008 were. And please keep your suggestions for Office Live Workspace coming; you can post them here or here. 

Viva Las Vegas! Viva Microsoft Office Live Workspace!