In a fresh drive for innovation, a slew of products will be released by the end of next year, including the Xbox 360, Windows Vista and Office 12
Ten years after the Rolling Stones hit song Start Me Up kick-started its Windows 95 campaign, Microsoft is banking on a slate of fresh product releases over the next 12 months to boost its flagging sales and recapture those former glory days.
The trail of new products begins with the Xbox 360, Microsoft's video game and entertainment console to be introduced this holiday season in Europe, Japan and North America, and in Australia, Colombia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan next year.
By the end of next year, the software giant is expected to pull out all the stops for the launch of the new operating system upgrade Windows Vista.
It has also earmarked a US$100million investment, called Windows Vista Partner Showcase Program, to help its partner network of independent software vendors worldwide develop a wave of enterprise, small-business and consumer applications built on Windows Vista. This program will be available by the end of the year.
'This is our biggest product launch schedule yet. Bigger than 1995,' said Adam Anger, director of business and marketing organisation at Microsoft Hong Kong.
'Our pipeline is loaded.'