Truckloads of new personal computers left warehouses worldwide last week, heralding the arrival of Microsoft's Windows 7 - the latest version of the operating system that runs more than 90 per cent of the world's PCs.
Microsoft could do with a boost, having suffered its first decline in annual sales. The PC industry shipped only 300 million units last year and Microsoft is one of the many sup-pliers that have seen sales slump in the global recession. The chance to flog some new kit is not one to be missed.
Microsoft may have regained of its lost prestige with Windows 7. Reviewers are giving the new operating system the thumbs up after its predecessor, the unpopular Windows Vista, was plagued with technical and marketing blunders.
The new operating system's two key tasks are to replace the eight-year-old Windows XP version on the popular mini-notebooks and to persuade consumers and enterprises to update their computers as the economy improves.
"We did more than 15,000 individual-user sessions where we had people come in and [relay] their Windows experience [of] XP and Vista," says Brad Brooks, vice-president for Windows consumer marketing at Microsoft. "We also talked to a lot of partners ... It led to insights that our engineering team took and put into practice and created new features around."
Available in Hong Kong in Home Premium (HK$1,699), Professional (HK$2,599) and Ultimate (HK$2,699) versions, Windows 7's main attraction is its stylish, user-friendly interface. Users typically have five to 15 windows open at any time and Microsoft has built features to make managing them easier.
"Snap" resizes two windows with two mouse swipes so they equally fill the screen.
"Aero Shake" allows the user to close all but one window by clicking on it and wiggling the mouse back and forth. When the cursor hovers over the taskbar, small preview screens of each window pop up.
The "HomeGroup" feature simplifies the connection of computers in a home through a wireless network and makes it easy to access photos, video and other files stored on different computers.
Users can stream video and music to other devices with the "Play To" feature. Videos can be played on a television, for instance, if it is connected to the internet via an Xbox 360 games console.
Windows 7 was designed to support the industry standard Digital Living Network Alliance system, allowing it to work easily with other consumer electronics products, unlike Vista which was plagued by compatibility problems with other devices when it was it was launched in 2007.
In addition, Windows 7 touts greater power efficiency than Vista, which would give laptop computers a longer battery life.
There has also been a surge of new all-in-one PC models announced by major players, such as Lenovo (SEHK: 0992, announcements, news) , Dell, Sony and Apple. "Many of these products have been repositioned to emphasise the enhanced touch features of Windows 7," says Chris Connery, a vice-president at market research firm DisplaySearch.
Anthony Brown, a sales manager for Sony Vaio, says Microsoft has listened to its customers. "Even the worst salesperson at your worst out-of-town retailer can have a reasonable stab at selling you Windows 7. It will be a key sales driver this Christmas," he says.
Still, even though Windows 7 has been lauded as every-thing Vista should have been, Microsoft has released its flagship product into a vastly different and more uncertain technology market. While a billion people still use Windows today, the PC no longer reigns supreme as computing migrates to different devices and platforms.
Where people once relied on PCs for e-mail, many now get their messages on smartphones and Web browsers through services such as Gmail. Developers are sharpening their focus on making iPhone applications rather than PC software, or on so-called "cloud computing" applications, which run online instead of in a proprietary PC-based environment such as Windows.
"The potential market for personal computers is being challenged by other platforms; set-top boxes, connected TVs, smartphones, even games systems are taking some of the emphasis away from personal computers," says industry analyst Rob Enderle, of the Enderle Group in California's Silicon Valley. "With that emphasis, Windows as we have always known it doesn't get the attention it once did."
In cloud computing software is kept on internet servers rather than being stored on a PC. Users of Google Docs have spreadsheets and word-processing documents that can be accessed through the Web rather than through Microsoft Word or Excel on a computer. It does not matter to cloud computing users whether the Web browser is running on Windows, Linux or another operating system.
Microsoft's response to this was to develop the Azure cloud platform but it faces major competitors in IBM, Amazon.com and Google.
The mood has so far been positive in the PC trade regarding the adoption of Windows 7. "The general feedback from both consumers and enterprises has been very good," says Peter Yeung Si-ngai, Microsoft's Hong Kong general manager.
John Swatton, a marketing specialist at netbook maker Asustek Computer, is also confident about the platform. "We are launching a number of new products with Windows 7, such as UL Series notebooks and Eee Top all-in-one touchscreen PCs, and we are anticipating high levels of interest," he says.
But Al Gillen, an analyst at International Data Corporation, believes there is something more behind consumers' impetus to buy computers with Windows 7.
"It's a combination of the deferral of deploying Windows Vista, the installed base [the number of Microsoft units already in operation] and the continued emergence from the economic downturn that will drive the refresh cycle," he says.
Guardian News & Media
Additional reporting by McClatchy-Tribune and Bien Perez.
