Microsoft Corp launched Windows 7 yesterday in its most important release for years, aiming to win back customers after the disappointing Vista and strengthen its grip on the PC market.
The company has received good reviews for the new operating system, which it hopes will grab back the impetus in new technology from rivals Apple Inc and Google Inc.
The new system — which is faster, less cluttered and has new touch-screen features — comes almost three years after the launch of Vista, whose complexity frustrated many home users and turned off business customers.
The success of Windows — which accounts for more than half of Microsoft’s profit — is crucial for chief executive Steve Ballmer to revive the company’s image as the world’s most important software firm.
“I have to say I’m chomping at the bit,” Ballmer told an audience of Microsoft customers and partners in Toronto, Canada, on Wednesday, adding that he is ready to make sales calls himself on Windows 7.
Sales won’t immediately impact Microsoft’s bottom line, which is expected to post a lower quarterly profit today.
Microsoft is charging US$199.99 for the Home Premium version of Windows 7, or US$119.99 for users seeking to upgrade from older versions of the operating system — well below comparable prices for Vista.
It also has a range of offers in conjunction with retailer Best Buy and PC makers such as Dell Inc and Acer Inc (宏碁).
For the first time, shoppers will be able to buy PCs loaded with the software direct from a branded Microsoft store, with the first of a planned chain set to open yesterday in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The US holiday season will soon reveal whether consumer PC sales get a kick from Windows 7, but success with corporations — the key to Microsoft’s financial power — won’t be clear until next year, analysts say.
“Come June of next year, we are going to get the real indication of the business-to-business marketplace,” Mark Simons, chief executive of the US arm of Toshiba Corp, the world’s No. 5 PC maker, said on Wednesday.
Research group Gartner expects commercial PC sales to rise 10 percent next year and an additional 13 percent in 2011, as businesses replace four and five-year-old computers.
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