Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says Vista was a painful experience for the company and its partners, but Windows 7 represents a "big dog" revenue opportunity for the channel that will help wash away the bad memories.
Windows 7 will be available on new PCs in October and has progressed much more smoothly than Vista from a partner readiness standpoint, Turner said Wednesday in a keynote speech at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference. "The momentum in the marketplace around Windows 7 feels really good. After the Vista launch, how could it not?" Turner said wryly, eliciting muted giggles from WPC attendees.
Vista users' complaints over application and device compatibility were warranted, and Windows 7 is going to be successful in large part because of the painful lessons Microsoft learned from the Vista experience, Turner said. "Could we have done a better job of enabling our partner community? Yes, but we've learned from that," he said.
Turner's Vista message is markedly different from the one Microsoft trotted out at last year's WPC, where executives likened Microsoft to a "sleeping giant" that had woken up and was going to start aggressively defending Vista from unfair industry criticism. Microsoft did respond to Apple's Vista jabs with an impressive advertising campaign highlighting the advantages of PCs, but was criticized for attributing Vista's negative image to ill-founded user perceptions in its Mojave Experiment.
One Microsoft partner likes the direction Microsoft is taking with Windows 7. "Windows 7 is hot -- it's a sit-up-and-take-notice release," said Chris Rue, CEO of Black Warrior Technology, a Northport, Ala.-based solution provider. "I don't know anyone who has seen or worked with it that hasn't come away impressed."
One problem Microsoft faces with Windows 7 is the lack of concrete signs for a near-term economic recovery and the likelihood that this will put a crimp on IT spending. Microsoft's messaging at WPC has highlighted the importance of partners continuing to invest in IT, and Turner echoed this when talking about Microsoft's coming product launch wave.
"We've really had that innovation engine going and we're just going to keep coming and coming," Turner said. "But you've got to run the latest stuff and deploy it in your business, and be on the most current version in order to sell it. Let's get on the new right now."
