New York: Faced with tough competition in the software market, Microsoft has released new versions of Windows and office for businesses, marking the beginning of several other products it plans to roll out over the next year in an effort to maintain its dominant position in the personal computer market.
Releasing the Windows Vista operating system and Office 2007 on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the company plans to release a host of new products designed to enable businesses to thrive in a world of instant communication, expanding information and constant change.
Windows Vista and new office will initially be available for businesses and corporations to whom Microsoft expects to make substantial sales, but these will not arrive in consumer market until January 30, something which disappointed the PC makers who could have enticed the buyers during the yearend holiday season which sees maximum sales.
The new operating systems come after five years of release of the last version and after repeated delays, something Microsoft says it would correct now.
Ballmer said in addition to Vista and 2007 office, the company plans to release more than 30 new products for business customers. Ballmer said new versions of Windows, Office and Exchange Server 2007 are the result of an unprecedented collaboration between Microsoft and its customers. Real-life scenarios guided product development through feedback from customers who volunteered to let Microsoft watch them work in more than one billion user sessions.
During testing, customers from around the world downloaded more than five million beta versions of the products and provided valuable feedback and suggestions.
"These are game-changing products," Ballmer said. "It's an incredible step forward for business computing in a year of unprecedented innovation from Microsoft. We expect that more than 200 million people will be using at least one of these products by the end of 2007."
Microsoft expects its new products to increase productivity by making it easier for the workers to collaborate online teams, retrieve and reply to emails by phone using voice recognition and easily access information in their laptops and across the networks.
Joining Ballmer at NASDAQ MarketSite was Michael Wolf, president and chief operating officer of MTV Networks. "In the highly-competitive and fast-moving media and entertainment industry, our advantage comes from our people," Wolf said.
"These new products provide rich collaboration tools and powerful information-discovery capabilities that will help our employees be more productive and more creative. This will strengthen our competitive edge, and that's why we'll deploy the new products to 3,000 desktops in the coming six months."
According to a Capgemini study commissioned by Microsoft, early adopters expect dramatic gains in productivity through capabilities that address core business issues in new ways.
Companies we've talked to are looking at driving major revenue increases, improved responsiveness to customers, and improved sales team win rates with the 2007 Microsoft Office system, said Ken Edwards, vice-president of Capgemini.
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