Microsoft Launches Windows Nt New Version Should Help Company Crack Corporate Market
They aren’t bringing Jay Leno to Redmond or lighting up the Empire State Building, but Microsoft executives are celebrating yet another major product launch - this one the anchor in a business worth $1 billion a year.
The celebration over a key new version of the Windows NT operating system, version 4.0, extends all the way up to Chairman Bill Gates, who at a reception for reporters Tuesday touted the fact that the program is being shipped to computer manufacturers today.
Windows NT got a weak start three years ago because its early versions were cumbersome and slow, but version 4.0 is expected to crack what for Microsoft has been a frustrating business to break into: the lucrative market of corporate computing.
Tuesday’s reception with Gates kicked off a week full of Microsoft marketing overtures, including a two-day workshop for reporters who might review Microsoft’s new Internet “browser,” Explorer 3.0, which is due out later this year; a full-day financial meeting for stock analysts; and an outdoor dinner for media at Columbia Winery in Woodinville.
“This is Microsoft’s shotgun strategy,” research analyst Chris Le Tocq of Dataquest said of the media push. “If one barrel doesn’t get you, the other one will.” Le Tocq is flying in from San Jose, Calif., to attend the financial analysts’ meeting, which he termed “all business.”
The Windows NT launch will come without much fanfare - but with high hopes all around.
Le Tocq said he expects 8.4 million units of NT to sell this calendar year. Sales should triple next year to 24 million units.
Windows NT is Microsoft’s entree into the world of corporate computing, a universe that until a few years ago had been left to players such as International Business Machines and Sun Microsystems.
The eagerly awaited shipment of Windows NT 4.0 will catapult Microsoft into corporations around the world, analysts say. Until now, many companies that wanted a Microsoft operating system have been putting off deciding which one to buy. That’s because both Windows 95 and earlier NT versions had weaknesses from a corporation’s perspective.
Windows 95, the $90 program that launched last August with a carnival in Redmond, a Leno stand-up routine and the Empire State Building display (in the logo’s colors), is considered a good basic operating system that was easy to use and worked with older computer programs - but wasn’t reliable enough for high-end corporate computing such as airline-ticket reservations or banking.
The previous version of NT is more reliable than Windows 95 but harder to use and incompatible with older programs.
Now NT will come with many of the easy-to-use features of Windows 95, making it an attractive combination.