Regardless of Microsoft;s claims to the contrary, the achievement Microsoft has enjoyed with
Windows XP on netbooks isn;t assured to proceed with Windows 7.Microsoft officials are trumpeting this week, through a brand new posting around the Windows Weblog, that Pc Planet, the biggest electronics retailer inside the UK,
Rosetta Stone Schwedisch, is removing Linux netbooks from all their shops and “going all-Windows.” Microsoft;s public line is consumers have spoken and they “want Windows because it’s the only OS that gives people the choice,
Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 Cl��, compatibility, familiarity and simplicity they need.”The post doesn;t mention that Microsoft offers Pc makers XP at a cut-rate price (estimated to be about $15 per copy for netbooks, compared to an estimated $35-plus per-copy for XP on laptops/desktops. It fails to acknowledge how few netbooks are running Vista — because Vista;s hefty system requirements made that proposition impossible. The post doesn;t mention the growing number of Microsoft OEM partners who are working on Android/Linux netbooks. (The latest to join that pack: Acer, which is promising an Android-based netbook for Q3 2009.) And it fails to note that Microsoft still has not publicly announced how and if it plans to get Windows 7 on ARM-based netbooks.Microsoft has a well-established love-hate relationship with netbooks — a class of PCs its executives prefer to call “small laptops.”
Windows XP preloads on netbooks were one of the few bright spots for Windows during Microsoft;s Q3 FY 2009, which ended in March of this year. But Microsoft is having to do some fancy footwork behind the scenes — by restricting the screen size of PCs that qualify for Windows seven netbook pricing to 10 inches — in an attempt to keep netbooks from cannibalizing its Windows margins.Microsoft has demonstrated that test builds of even its heftiest (and priciest) Windows 7 SKUs can run on netbooks. But here;s the rub: Computer makers are expected to choose Windows 7 Starter Edition or possibly Windows seven Home Premium to preload on new netbooks because those SKUs will be the cheapest. Microsoft recently removed its three-concurrent-application restriction on Windows seven Starter Edition, but that low-end version is still missing a number of features that Microsoft is touting as Windows 7 selling points.Microsoft execs are holding towards the party line that even netbook users will be interested in paying to upgrade to a higher end Windows 7 SKU by way of a program like “Anytime Upgrade” (where users pay a fee to “unlock” more feature-rich Windows SKUs.During a recent appearance at the Cowan and Company Technology Media & Telecom Conference, Tami Reller, the Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft;s Windows Client Business, reiterated that stance. When asked about the anticipated SKU mix for Windows 7,
Office Project Professionnel 2007 Cl��, Reller told attendees:“(W)e are confident there is high-quality ability to sell the Windows seven value prop all up to a netbook consumer, because what we have learned is that they;re … what they want to use a netbook for, in terms of applications and usage,
Rosetta Stone Swedish, is actually not that much different than a notebook. They just use it in more bursts, they;re shorter periods of time, and in … and more on the go.”Reller also noted that while netbooks aren;t expected to important to most business users, they do play into Microsoft;s belief within the growing consumerization of IT. In Reller;s words, “(I)f you have consumers with an inherent interest and spoken demand for a product that will further help IT make a decision to sort of adopt more around it,
Office Home and Business 2010 64 Bit(X64) Key, and move faster to a brand new version.”Do you believe the next generation of netbooks will be largely Windows 7 machines? Or could Linux/Android/Moblin actually make some headway against Windows starting with Windows 7 — and will this be primarily the result of Microsoft pricing/licensing missteps?