Microsoft launches new OS and retail stores
(Image: Flickr user michperu (cc: by-nc-sa))
The following is a partial transcript; for full story, listen to audio.
Today Microsoft launches Windows 7, the latest and much-anticipated version of its popular Windows operating system. Microsoft hopes to build buzz for the new release by offering it on the same day that the software giant also makes its first foray into the retail side of business.
Microsoft, taking a page from Apple’s playbook, is planning to open their own stores all over the country. Killing Microsoft’s buzz is the news that Apple profits skyrocketed 47 percent in the last quarter on the success of iPhone and Mac sales.
“Wired” magazine writer Cliff Kuang says Apple’s big week was a big blow for Microsoft, but that this could be Microsoft’s big year.
“I think that they finally decided that Apple was on to something with their retail stores, and I think now they’re trying to put a little bit of a more personal face on their technology, which to-date, they haven’t really had and haven’t really had a lot of control over.”
Paul Atkinson, a reporter for public radio station KJZZ in Arizona, was on the scene in a mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, the site of a Microsoft Windows launch party and retail store opening. It’s four a.m. and a number of Microsoft fans have camped out.
“We’ve gotten about 50 or 60 people, most of them in sleeping bags, some of them in lawn chairs,” said Atkinson. “And Microsoft actually brought out an Xbox game, so you’ve had for the last eight hours, people playing Madden football and other video games while they wait for the grand opening.”
As for the new OS, Kuang says Windows 7 will be an improvement over Vista. “It’s going to be faster; it’s going to be much more stripped down; it’s going to take a lot of the functionality and a lot of complexity out of Vista, which is what a lot of people had complaints with.”
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