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San
Francisco, Oct. 22 -- Microsoft Corp. began to roll out Windows 7
operating system on Thursday with the hope of shaking off the negative
image created by previous Vista version and maintain its dominance on
the global market of personal computer (PC) operating systems.
New Zealand became the first country to kick off the global launch of
Windows 7, as hundreds of people attended events in Wellington and
Auckland on Thursday morning.
Events are followed around the globe, culminating with a ceremony in New
York where Microsoft chief executive officer (CEO)Steve Ballmer formally
unveils the new operating system.
"So today Windows 7 is available -- 45,000 stores around the world. It's
available on new PCs, the upgrade is available, and it's just out there
for all to start, hopefully, to appreciate and enjoy as much as our 8
million beta testers have done," said Ballmer .
"We were trying to make the everyday usage of the PC better in the ways
our customers wanted: simpler, faster, more responsive. And so for the
billion people who use Windows, for the perhaps as many as 300 million
people who may buy a PC during the course of the next 12 months, we want
to give a chance for people to have a better and better experience," he
added.
Microsoft on Thursday also opened its first retail store in Scottsdale
in the U.S. state of Arizona, which offers customers a select line of
laptops, netbooks, all-in-one PCs, Xbox consoles, Windows Mobile phones
and third-party software.
A second store will be launched Oct. 29 in Mission Viejo in the U.S.
state of California, according to Microsoft.
The global availability of Windows 7 is joined by an unprecedented array
of new PCs with price points starting under 300 U.S. dollars, the
company said in a statement.
Microsoft also announced that to show how Windows 7 simplifies the PC,
it is launching the next wave of its global "I'm a PC" campaign starting
from Thursday.
Wooing customers to migrate to Windows 7 is crucial for Microsoft as
Windows Vista, the software giant's previous operating system released
about three years ago, was poorly received with performance and
compatibility problems, analysts said.
Many users of Windows XP, the version that was released eight years ago,
have been reluctant to upgrade to Vista.
"Windows 7 will definitely swing the negative impression left by Vista
to a very positive experience," Dr. Huihong Luo, a software expert and
founder of VMLite, a Silicon Valley company focusing on innovative
virtualization technologies, told Xinhua in an interview.
Windows 7 offers many new features such as revamped taskbar, improved
file management and navigation, improved parental control, multi-touch
and gesture, he said.
"It offers better performance, reliability and security. These
improvements are pervasive to every level of the experience, ranging
from the very low level kernel tweaks that make the whole system to run
better and more robust, to the very high end user features that make
Windows 7 much easier to get jobs done, and at the same time, you will
find much fun," Luo noted.
Personally, "I would highly recommend Windows 7," he said.
The launch of Windows 7 ahead of the holiday shopping season has been
anticipated by the PC industry to be a catalyst for computer sales.
HP, the world's largest PC maker, announced that beginning from
Thursday, Windows 7 will be available across its portfolio of consumer
and business PCs.
However, some analysts said they are not expecting Windows 7 to provide
a significant boost to PC sales immediately.
"We anticipate renewed interest in hardware upgrades from consumers and
small business during the holiday season as a result of Windows 7's
release. In the corporate market, Windows 7's adoption is not expected
to ramp up until late 2010," Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at
market research firm Gartner, said earlier this month.
Source: Xinhua, October 23, 2009
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