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.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS