Posted on: Friday, October 26, 2001
Gates: Windows XP will revive tech sector
By Jim Krane
Associated Press
NEW YORK — In a glitzy launch with a phalanx of hardware chief executives, Bill Gates declared yesterday that Microsoft's biggest software release in six years, Windows XP, would recharge the beleaguered tech sector.
"Once again, the technology industry will re-energize our economy," the Microsoft chairman said, touting a more stable, feature-packed operating system that pushes computing toward more robust communication and the Internet.
Critics say, however, that many Windows XP elements make computing yet more Microsoft-dependent.
After a gospel choir sang "America the Beautiful," Gates strode onstage at the Marriott Marquis with Rudolph Giuliani and saluted the city's mayor and its people for their "courage, determination and resilience" after last month's terrorist attacks.
"New York is back, and open for business," Gates told 1,500 invited guests and media.
This launch, proclaimed the Microsoft co-founder, marks the end of the MS-DOS era. Microsoft's original operating system was the underpinning of all its previous consumer-oriented Windows offerings — still running on some 400 million computers.
With a backdrop of a nation facing a long conflict with terrorism and a company still beset by legal challenges in the United States and Europe, yesterday's event was far more subdued than the bubbly launch of Windows 95, Microsoft's last major operating system upgrade.
A visibly grayer Gates, who was 38 for the 1995 launch, spoke in comparatively solemn tones. He huddled before the launch with chief executives of Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Intel and other Microsoft partners for a sober discussion of the industry.
Microsoft threw launch parties around the globe, including a London event headlined by chief executive Steve Ballmer and fetes in Australia, Mexico, the Netherlands and Brazil.
Despite a $250 million marketing campaign, however, the release is not expected to spark the frenzied buying or boost in hardware sales that occurred with the launch of Windows 95. That's because Windows XP doesn't differ as much from immediate predecessors — especially in look and feel — as Windows 95 did from its forerunner, Windows 3.1.
Still, struggling manufacturers of PCs and related equipment — wallowing in their first-ever year without sales growth — pray that consumers and businesses will resume delayed purchases of their products with the onset of XP.
As far as businesses go, analysts say large companies are unlikely to migrate en masse to XP Professional Edition (a $199 upgrade) because many haven't yet switched to the year-old Windows 2000, whose software base is the same.
Home computer users are Microsoft's real target with XP.
Analysts say the $99 upgrade to XP Home Edition is Microsoft's best attempt yet at a user-friendly operating system, with plug-and-play support for a plethora of digital gadgets, an emphasis on whiz-bang multimedia and much more stability than consumer-geared predecessors.
Windows XP includes programs for listening to and recording music, playing videos and editing and organizing digital photographs. A new feature called Windows Messenger lets users communicate instantly with others using text, voice and video.
More robust networking — and wireless support — are among Windows XP traits geared toward more mobile computing and the Web, where some of Microsoft's key businesses are developing.
Critics say that by bundling into XP many features previously provided by competitors — and by steering users to its Internet services — Microsoft is mimicking its monopolistic behavior of the late 1990s. A U.S. antitrust case is entering its penalty phase and a similar European Union probe is under way.
Windows XP repeatedly beseeches users to sign up for Microsoft's authentication service, known as Passport, which retains identity and credit card information for doing business online. Many Passport-enabled programs offered by Microsoft are free — including e-mail and instant messaging. But newer services, such as travel alerts that can be sent to wireless devices, will be available for a fee.
The Consumer Federation of America complained yesterday that the inclusion in Windows XP of Passport and programs such as the media player and Windows Messenger seek to shove competing products out of the marketplace.
On stage yesterday, Gates ventured into self-deprecating humor during an appearance by Regis Philbin, host of the TV game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"
"Well, Regis, I always wanted to be on your show," declared Gates, the world's richest man.
"You think it would be worth your time?" Philbin asked.
The natty Philbin also apparently couldn't get over the tech-casual attire — jackets and open-necked shirts — de rigeur with Gates and other high-powered industry executives: "Why am I the only guy with a tie on?"
