Microsoft has launched a new blog page for discussions with customers and partners about the next Windows operating system. “We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion,” said Windows 7 development engineers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky.
For a while now, Microsoft has said it would deliver Windows 7 approximately three years after the January 2007 launch of Windows Vista. “The product is tracking very, very well,” said Senior Vice President Bill Veghte, who runs Microsoft’s Windows business. “And we are looking good relative to our commitment,” he told analysts last month.
To prep developers on the new OS, Microsoft will hold two major Windows events. “The Professional Developers Conference on October 27 and the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference the following week represent the first venues where we will provide in-depth technical information about Windows 7,” DeVaan and Sinofsky said.
Vista Under Fire
Sales of licenses for Windows Vista surpassed the 180 million in the second quarter, according to Colleen Healy, general manager of investor relations at Microsoft. “And Windows Vista had driven client revenue to an average growth rate of 16 percent since it became generally available,” she said during a conference call with analysts last month.
However, Vista has come under fire because of its failure to work well with other software applications and hardware. Adoption rates in enterprises have also lagged analysts’ expectations.
With the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft will have its first major opportunity to improve industry perceptions about its operating system. “The biggest problem Vista has today is in perception — a perceived lack of value and perceived instability,” said Michael Silver, a research director at Gartner Client Computing.
Microsoft says it plans to listen more closely to what the world has to say about Windows. Earlier this year, Veghte…