In the place of a global extravaganza, smaller Microsoft events have been planned around the world, kicking off with the official Sydney launch today at the Maritime Museum. As the company attempts to put distance between itself and the poorly-received Vista platform, it has adopted a very different tone as it attempts to reach out more personally to its customer base, recruiting Windows users to host their own Tupperware-style Windows 7 house parties to spread the good word on the new OS. “Were not about big events any more. We are about listening to what users have got to say," said James DeBragga, general manager of Windows consumer product marketing.

Microsoft estimates 60,000 enthusiasts worldwide will hold house parties in the coming week, with 1500 of these in Australia.

“We're very bullish about the launch party as a vehicle to introduce the product. We have estimated that each guest is likely to tell roughly 10 people about it. We have never marketed that way in the past,” DeBragga said. ------------------------------------------------------

Windows 7 launch centre

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Although it has not been commercially available until today, early releases of the new operating system have received a glowing reception from software developers, hardware manufacturers and reviewers. They have been impressed by its superior speed and performance, improved layout of taskbars for accessing favourite applications and features such as the HomeGroup that serves to simplify the sharing of files, photos and hardware devices across a home network. In addition to this, the operating system has touch technology built in, making it much easier for hardware manufacturers to deliver a new breed of integrated touch sensitive PCs to market, the first fruits of which have already been launched by vendors such as HP.



A free upgrade of Windows 7 will be offered to those buying a Vista PC from the end of June to the end of January. The Home Premium version of the operating system is expected to cost $299 (or $199 for an upgrade version), the Professional $449 ($399 upgrade) and the Ultimate $469 ($429 upgrade). A family pack being offered in the US to cut software costs for home users will not be immediately available in Australia. "We are going to test it in a few markets around the world. If it is successful there, we will launch it within three to six months in other regions," DeBragga said.



Research company Gartner predicts that, in 2010, Windows 7 will become the dominant operating system on new PCs with nearly 66 per cent of all new PCs preloaded with Windows 7 by the end of the year. "When looking at the overall installed base - Windows 7 is expected to overtake Vista as the main operating system in 2012 with 53 per cent of installed PCs running that version of Windows OS," the researcher said. Although many of the improvements to Windows 7 were first conceived in its predecessor, Vista, its performance was widely criticised. Many businesses and consumers preferred to remain with XP than to upgrade. Gartner said it "categorised Windows 7 as a 'polishing' release on top of the architectural change that the Windows Vista 'plumbing' release delivered".



De Bragga said the company acknowledged that some development decisions it made in regard to Vista had negatively influenced its market perception and subsequent adoption. "With Vista we made conscious trade-offs with compatibility to put an emphasis on security. With reduced application and hardware device compatibility, we knew we were going to take hits. "We also launched multiple betas and release candidates. Because we made so many versions available, our ecosystem got frustrated with us and lost confidence in Vista," he said.

Harvey Norman chairman Gerry Harvey said computers were the only category of products performing poorly in his stores in recent months.



Harvey, who personally sold the first Australian copy of Windows 7 at the midnight launch in Alexandria, predicts the operating system will increase hardware sales by 30 per cent. "The weakest part of our business at the moment is computer hardware, because we believe they've all been hanging out for this," Harvey said. "Every other category we've got is showing good market growth but the weak spot, the very weak spot, is computers."

Advertising is another area in which Microsoft is attempting to reinvent itself. Not only is it marketing a brand new operating system, but it is also attempting to turn the tables on Apple in response to its recent campaign that depicts PC users as bumbling nerds.

One of its more notable recent ad campaigns featured Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, but its efforts met with a lukewarm reception. "The Bill and Jerry commercials were the first salvo in creating a conversation in the marketplace. We needed to not talk about stuff but to tap into the silent majority. In terms of sparking that conversation, we are very pleased with the outcome of that," DeBragga said. More recently its Windows House Party instructional videos provoked a strong reaction from a number of Microsoft party hosts who felt it did not depict them in an accurate or flattering light. "The cutting edge types are some of our best advocates, but we have a huge base of users out there and we needed to cut across lots of different types of people," DeBragga said. In a new initiative, the company revealed this month that it had sponsored a whole episode of the airing on November 8 to promote Windows 7. The show will cut all commercial breaks and network promotions and instead feature Windows 7-branded programming blended seamlessly with show content.



Whether or not this helps it to win over mainstream consumers, it is clear Microsoft cannot have the desktop market to itself. Competitors have not been shy with spoiler product announcements and campaigns designed to divert attention away from the launch of Windows 7 in recent days.

Apple yesterday announced a range of new, cheaper Mac computers and a new multi-touch mouse that is likely to turn some heads among those looking to upgrade their desktop computers. Google also chose this week to promote a "Gone Google" campaign promoting the benefits of its cloud-based Google Apps suite. Although it is not a direct threat to Windows 7, some experts believe the role of desktop computing could be unseated by the rise of cloud based services such as Google Apps.

"If two emerging trends in the IT industry - cloud computing and virtualisation - gain in popularity, desktop computing will become obsolete. This would render the systems required to operate desktop applications redundant," said Associate Professor Sanjay Chawla, head of the University of Sydney's School of IT. Loading "Microsoft may not release another desktop operating system beyond this week's release of Windows 7," he said. - with Asher Moses