Campbell: Windows 7 will be tough for Microsoft to sell

When it comes to selling Windows 7, Microsoft has bigger problems than personal users.

… When it comes to selling Windows 7, Microsoft has bigger problems than personal users.

Computer users like you and me are all well and good, but most organizations in the software industry make their money off their fellow businessmen.

Businesses, even small ones, require large amounts of hardware and software in order to keep infrastructure running smoothly.

Companies are also willing to pour large amounts of money into their computer infrastructure and are therefore willing to upgrade their systems at a great expense. They are only willing to do this, however, when they sense a benefit.

Microsoft’s recent offerings in the operating system market don’t show great promise to provide benefit to corporate customers looking to upgrade.

Corporate customers are still shocked by the hailstorm of controversy of Microsoft Windows Vista. Windows 7, Microsoft’s answer to this hailstorm, can easily be perceived as yet another knee-jerk reaction from a company desperate to force its customer base to abandon Windows XP.

As a result of these perceptions, corporate customers will not flock to Windows 7 and will not begin en masse investments in Microsoft’s new operating system. The benefit, for most corporate customers, simply isn’t there.

InformationWeek recently reported that from a poll of 1,100 business-grade computer technology buyers a ‘whopping 83 percent’ of enterprises plan to skip the OS in its first year.”

The true justifications for such a disappointing initial prediction are threefold. First, Windows 7 is rather expensive. To be fair, no Microsoft operating system can be considered ‘cheap’ at first glance.

Second, during an economic downturn, businesses face the same budget constraints as consumers — and they know they can save money by squeezing another year out of an aging, but still performing, operating system.

Third, Microsoft Windows 7 is reminiscent of Windows Vista and, although Microsoft made massive efforts to highlight differences and improvements, many fear that Windows 7 will prove to pose similar compatibility issues.

The corporate landscape is also changing. Where Microsoft was at one time a leader in workplace networking solutions, Unix and Linux operating systems are gaining footholds.

Unix-based operating systems are beginning to expand their influence on the server market. Unix already has a substantial share of the server market, and the platform to lose out in the coming years will be Windows.

With the efforts of open source initiatives, Linux-based architectures that were once user-unfriendly are now straightforward enough to be used by non-technical employees as a primary workstation operating system.

Microsoft is simply losing out.

The major question that grips many Microsoft diehards is whether or not this move is quite fair.

Unfortunately, to a certain extent, Microsoft suffered from a form of ‘too soon’ syndrome with Vista. Many will point out that Vista, for many users, posed little to no compatibility issues.

The annoying habits and pop-ups of Vista could be easily disabled and the operating system truly did not require staggering levels of hardware investment to run efficiently.

Microsoft simply wanted everyone to upgrade before many people were ready.

Windows 7, displaying itself as clearly more efficient and less, let’s say ’emphatic’ than its Vista cousin, will still unfortunately fight an uphill battle against anti-Vista prejudices.

In the business world, where an upgrade could mean millions and millions of dollars, even the slightest question can destroy an upgrade effort. This tenuousness is amplified by the fact that, all things considered, Windows XP was a very stable platform on which to base a standard business workstation.

Microsoft will have to do an excellent job of convincing industry why it should invest large sums of money to upgrade to a system immediately when the system is fresh.

Like any brand-new operating system, Windows 7 is sure to include its share of unforeseen bugs and complications upon initial release. Businesses are simply afraid that these bugs will be catastrophic, as many perceive those experienced at the outset of Vista were.

Microsoft will have to find an excellent answer to the old question of computer and electrical engineering: If it works, why [expletive] with it?

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