(By Richard Holway) Steve Ballmer gave his first keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vagas yesterday - a slot filled for 11 years by Bill Gates. Ballmer announced that Windows 7 would be available from next week. Read more in The Times - Microsoft hopes its mouseless software will click with public.
I note I was quoted in the article as follows: "Microsoft's announcement is an attempt to replace Vista, a critical and commercial failiure, with as little fuss as possible. "Vista has been, to all intents and purposes a flop," said Richard Holway, Chairman of TechMarketView, the industry analysts. "Vista would effectively 'kill' any machine that wasn't state of the art, making it run very slowly." In contrast, Microsoft claim Windows 7 will take up a lot less memory, and so will work more efficiently."
As I reported before, the real threat to Microsoft comes not only from the general downturn (where the news from Intel - see my post Bellwether#4 Intel - last night must have caused great concern to Microsoft) but from the huge growth in the use of Netbooks. See my 3rd Jan 09 post - Microsoft to cull jobs - are Netbooks to blame?. IDC came out with a forecast yesterday that Netbooks shipped would rise from 11m in 2008 (from almost zilch in 20
07) to 21m in 2009. Others are suggesting the figure could be nearer 30m. Indeed, in a story that would have been deemed 'unbelieveable' a year ago, M&S and Next are to sell Elonex Netbooks in their stores for £99 in February - See Telegraph £99 computers go on sale in fashion stores. Also a good report on Netbooks in The Times 7th Jan 09 - Netbooks Next Big Thing in Electronics World - although you will have read most of this months ago on HotViews!.
07) to 21m in 2009. Others are suggesting the figure could be nearer 30m. Indeed, in a story that would have been deemed 'unbelieveable' a year ago, M&S and Next are to sell Elonex Netbooks in their stores for £99 in February - See Telegraph £99 computers go on sale in fashion stores. Also a good report on Netbooks in The Times 7th Jan 09 - Netbooks Next Big Thing in Electronics World - although you will have read most of this months ago on HotViews!.Footnote - Contrary to reports, Ballmer does a sense of humour. In his keynote he flashed up spoof emails. One was from Rod Blagojevich asking "How do I delete emails that I have already sent?". Another was from Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang which read "Why do you keep ignoring my Facebook requests?”
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