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Microsoft Tries To Head Off Google At Netbook Pass – Software – IT Channel News by CRN
Posted by | Posted in General | Posted on 16-12-2009
By Kevin McLaughlin, ChannelWeb
1:58 PM EST Tue. Dec. 15, 2009Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) executives often avoid mentioning Google (NSDQ:GOOG) by name. But Google’s entry to the netbook market with Chrome OS now has Microsoft executives talking frankly about the threat Google poses to the software giant’s business.
Last week at the Barclays Capital Technology Conference in San Francisco, Robert Youngjohns, president of North American sales and marketing at Microsoft, acknowledged that Google is "clearly a major competitor" to Microsoft, one that has elicited no small measure of concern within the hallways of Redmond.
"We clearly are concerned about Android and Chrome at the low end, and we will compete vigorously, particularly in the low end netbook space to make sure we preserve what we’ve achieved now with Windows," Youngjohns said during a Q&A at the event. "We think our ecosystem is really the differentiator there."
Netbooks have been eating away at Windows client revenue, and Microsoft hasn’t yet shown it can convince customers to pay more for Windows 7 on netbooks. And with Google planning to bring Chrome OS-powered netbooks to market next year, already miniscule netbook prices are likely to shrink even further.
Microsoft Tries To Head Off Google At Netbook Pass – Software – IT Channel News by CRN
However, the IT Pros I talk to keep telling me they love Windows 7 on their netbook! They usually swap Windows 7 starter for Windows 7 Ultimate when they can. These are not your average netbook user though as they like to bump up their machine’s memory, but still an indicator of how some people are enjoying the new OS on these lower end PCs.
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Alex
Microsoft Windows Client Team