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Microsoft employees got an early start to the day Thursday when they showed up to the company's Redmond campus to watch their Chief Finanicial Operator ring the opening bell on Wall Street. C.F.O. Christopher Liddell led a pep rally for hundreds of employees before virtually ringing the bell from Redmond.
It was all part of the high-profile launch of Windows 7. The new operating system from Microsoft is a big part of the company's battle for revenue in a tech industry with a lot more competition.
So far, the general reaction from the tech crowd is that Windows 7 works very well. Microsoft hopes the new Windows will help people forget Vista, the bulky, not well-received 2007 operating system that some say was one of the biggest mistakes in Microsoft history. All signs point to Windows 7 giving a big boost to Microsoft in the fourth quarter of this year. But when it comes to long-term plans, Microsoft has billions invested in some new ideas still waiting to take hold.
Consider the past ten months: The first major layoffs in Microsoft history back in January. The first ever quarterly loss of revenue for the company in April. And, right now, with near record unemployment, we're still in an unsettled economy. Analysts say Microsoft needs a big hit with the Windows 7 release to turn around a difficult 2009. Analyst Matt Rosoff, with Directions on Microsoft, says, "I think it's a chance for Microsoft to set the ship right."
Rosoff says a lot is riding on the release of Windows 7. If more people buy Windows, they'll buy products like the new Microsoft Office, due for release next year. Rosoff says, "When companies buy Office, they buy the server software that goes with it. So Windows really pulls along a lot of other products, and I think that's important as well."
So, Windows 7 is supposed to right the ship. But when it comes to building the company's future, developers are singing a different tune. Just ask Sumit Basu and Dan Morris, the creators of Songsmith. It's a Microsoft application that gives you a drumbeat, inputs your voice, then adds chords and rhythm to create a finished song. As Morris puts it, "If you've never played an instrument and you don't know much about chords, that's quite a lot of magic that just happened right there in about 15 seconds."
But it's no magic trick here. Songsmith comes from the Microsoft Research group, which is big business. The company plans to invest $9 billion in research and development. In fact, the Research group helped create products like Bing, Microsoft's search engine in the fight against Google.
As of now, a few hundred thousand people have downloaded Songsmith. But the program's creators say this is all part of composing a new future for Microsoft. Basu says, "Part of the role of Microsoft Research is not only to work with the company and the current problems they have, and how to improve the products that are currently shipping, but also thinking about what the next generation of experiences will be."
The foundation for those new experiences will be a new operating system in Windows 7. But how will those experiences shape the future of Microsoft? As of now, the end to that song hasn't been written.
It was all part of the high-profile launch of Windows 7. The new operating system from Microsoft is a big part of the company's battle for revenue in a tech industry with a lot more competition.
So far, the general reaction from the tech crowd is that Windows 7 works very well. Microsoft hopes the new Windows will help people forget Vista, the bulky, not well-received 2007 operating system that some say was one of the biggest mistakes in Microsoft history. All signs point to Windows 7 giving a big boost to Microsoft in the fourth quarter of this year. But when it comes to long-term plans, Microsoft has billions invested in some new ideas still waiting to take hold.
Consider the past ten months: The first major layoffs in Microsoft history back in January. The first ever quarterly loss of revenue for the company in April. And, right now, with near record unemployment, we're still in an unsettled economy. Analysts say Microsoft needs a big hit with the Windows 7 release to turn around a difficult 2009. Analyst Matt Rosoff, with Directions on Microsoft, says, "I think it's a chance for Microsoft to set the ship right."
Rosoff says a lot is riding on the release of Windows 7. If more people buy Windows, they'll buy products like the new Microsoft Office, due for release next year. Rosoff says, "When companies buy Office, they buy the server software that goes with it. So Windows really pulls along a lot of other products, and I think that's important as well."
So, Windows 7 is supposed to right the ship. But when it comes to building the company's future, developers are singing a different tune. Just ask Sumit Basu and Dan Morris, the creators of Songsmith. It's a Microsoft application that gives you a drumbeat, inputs your voice, then adds chords and rhythm to create a finished song. As Morris puts it, "If you've never played an instrument and you don't know much about chords, that's quite a lot of magic that just happened right there in about 15 seconds."
But it's no magic trick here. Songsmith comes from the Microsoft Research group, which is big business. The company plans to invest $9 billion in research and development. In fact, the Research group helped create products like Bing, Microsoft's search engine in the fight against Google.
As of now, a few hundred thousand people have downloaded Songsmith. But the program's creators say this is all part of composing a new future for Microsoft. Basu says, "Part of the role of Microsoft Research is not only to work with the company and the current problems they have, and how to improve the products that are currently shipping, but also thinking about what the next generation of experiences will be."
The foundation for those new experiences will be a new operating system in Windows 7. But how will those experiences shape the future of Microsoft? As of now, the end to that song hasn't been written.
