Cash-strapped consumers have been slow to buy personal computers in the recession. But with the launch of Microsoft Corp.’s new Windows 7 operating system Thursday, PC makers are aiming to reverse that trend–and then some.
Microsoft is about to find out whether it can prevent further defections to the Macintosh among college students by charging less for Windows 7 than a typical textbook.
On Thursday, the company announced on Twitter that college students in the U.S. can upgrade their PCs to Windows 7 Home Premium edition for only $29.99, as long as they have a genuine copy of Windows XP or Vista already installed on their systems.
Hewlett-Packard CFO Cathie Lesjak says the company does not expect the debut of Microsoft Windows 7 to trigger a major PC refresh cycle.
“We think it looks like a good product, one that folks will really like, but we don’t think it is different enough to drive a refresh cycle,” she said in an interview this afternoon with Tech Trader Daily following the company’s Q3 earnings report.
I’ve got to say: in my opinion, Microsoft has turned The Corner. You know The Corner. The one that gets us off of pothole ridden Vista Avenue (one street over from Lincoln in Blue Velvet). The Corner that requires Microsoft to shed some of the fat it has layered on recently just to make the turn without flipping.
While it’s true that Apple has significantly grown its share of the desktop operating system market since the release of Windows Vista in November of 2006, the company’s market share remains below 10 percent, and it actually dropped in the first quarter of 2009, according to Gartner’s Worldwide PC Shipment report.
Microsoft announced plans to open retail stores, hoping to boost visibility of many of its products and its brand (Apple mimicry, perhaps?). The news is just too tempting not to have some fun with. So here are some yet-to-be-officially-revealed details about the Microsoft stores.
Canaccord Adams software analyst Peter Misek today cut his rating on Microsoft (MSFT) to Hold from Buy, while lowering his price target to $24 from $30.
Misek cited two reasons for his more cautious stance. One, he thinks consensus estimates are overly aggressive given the worsening macro spending environment. Misek points out that Microsoft had based its guidance on seeing some improvement in conditions in the second half of the year; Misek says he now questions the validity of that assumption.
I’ve been a pretty big fan of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads. No, it’s not because I’m such a Seinfeld fanboy (I am though) or that I enjoy watching Bill Gates perform the robot on cue.
It’s the seventh inning, and Microsoft finally hits a marketing home run. Is it a gamer winner? If the competition were Apple, which surged to 8.5 percent U.S. PC market share in the second quarter, the answer would be yes. But Microsoft faces its toughest competitor ever: Itself. I spent some time this morning reviewing [...]
My colleague Mark Ververka is up in Redmond today for the Microsoft (MSFT) Financial Analysts’ Meeting, where the company is trying to convince the Street that it has a viable online strategy. Here’s Mark’s latest update from the scene.
General Motors may take a detour around Vista, the latest computer operating system from Microsoft. The automaker has encountered so many speed bumps getting Vista to work on its machines that it may just wait for the next version of Windows, due in 2010 or 2011. “We’re considering bypassing Vista and going straight to Windows 7,” says GM’s Chief Systems & Technology Officer Fred Killeen.
“Hey! Ho! Time for Ballmer to Go,” a Wired.com headline proclaimed on Tuesday. My rejoinder: “Hell, no. There are no Softies ready for a promo.” Wired’s story attempts to make a case for CEO Steve Ballmer taking the hits for Vista’s less-than-stellar market reception, as well as the so-far-unconsummated Yahoo-Microsoft merger. “Other CEOs have gotten canned for lesser crimes,” Wired concludes. There’s just one problem, as Wired notes in an aside. No one’s ready to step up within the company and fill Ballmer’s big shoes.
Microsoft is nothing if not responsive to its customers. In fact, it’s hyper-responsive. That’s why we’ve ended up with feature-bloat in both Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, as the company has tried to please everyone by including everything-but-the-kitchen-sink in its software. And that’s why Microsoft will ultimately try to quell the embarrassing Windows Vista debacle by making a bold move with Windows 7 to win back customer loyalty and generate positive spin for its most important product.
Windows’ enterprise adoption declined in 2007, with the gains going to Linux and Mac OS. Vista is a bust.
Conventional wisdom seems to be that existing Microsoft customers won’t leapfrog Windows Vista and wait for “Windows Seven,” currently expected in 2010. There’s a feeling of inevitability about the transition, as if it’s just a question of when to write the checks to Microsoft and do the tedious work of switching operating systems. Yet as Vista celebrates its first birthday, the chances are increasing that many users will never see it on their desktops.
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