The first retail sales of Windows 7 will take place in New Zealand and Australia on 22 October, Microsoft confirmed this week.
(Credit:
Renai LeMay/ZDNet.com.au)
Windows 7 will hit first New Zealand, then Australia, due to the countries' placement with respect to the International Date Line. Microsoft announced last week that its new operating system would hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs from October 22.
"Our understanding at this time is that the availability of Windows 7 will 'follow the sun' on Thursday October 22," a Microsoft spokesperson said late this week. "As such, we're excited that the first retail sales globally of Windows 7 will take place in New Zealand and Australia as we cross the dateline ahead of other markets."
A number of large Australian organizations including National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Centrelink have already started examining Windows 7, and companies as large as Telstra have flagged their intention to eventually migrate to the platform.
ZDNet.com.au has also been informed by many early adopters that they have had positive experiences with Windows 7 after testing it on their home PCs in preparation for upgrading to the platform from Vista or XP installations.
Microsoft Australia could not confirm at this stage what upgrade programs would be available to locals. However, globally Microsoft has confirmed, without giving details, that it plans to offer some sort of "technology guarantee" giving those who buy Vista machines close to the Windows 7 launch a free or discounted copy of the new operating system.
As with past similar programs, details on pricing will be up to individual computer makers, although Microsoft did say the upgrade program will apply to Vista Home Premium and higher-priced editions (meaning not Windows Vista Basic).
The tech guarantee program is not beginning immediately, but Microsoft did raise the possibility it will offer some sort of lower-cost upgrade to those who are already using Windows Vista.
Renai LeMay of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney. CNET News.com's Ina Fried contributed to this article.
During a trip Down Under, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has had a lot to say. This week in Sydney, Australia, he stated that he isn't interested in wooing Yahoo anymore, he doesn't understand how Google plans to profit from Android, and he has confidence in President-elect Barack Obama's leadership.
And while the expressive executive on Friday also said Microsoft "may look into" using WebKit, the open-source browser-rendering technology used by Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers, he mostly rejected that idea, according to a Computerworld report. Instead, he said the two prominent Microsoft rivals--as well as social network Facebook, in which Microsoft has heavily invested--have something more worthy of mimicking: an application platform.
Despite acknowledging that WebKit's open-source nature is "interesting," Microsoft's chief executive elaborated on why he says the software giant is sticking--at least for now--with its Trident rendering engine for Internet Explorer.
"I think there will continue to be a lot of proprietary innovation by us, and other people, inside the browser itself," he said. "A company like ours needs to have (its own) rendering service. It is important that we have a browser that embraces (Internet) standards but also allows us to have innovative extensions, even before the standards bodies go there."
On serving as a liaison between developers and consumers, Ballmer seems to have a more collaborative view.
"I actually will agree that there's some good work, particularly at Facebook and also with the iPhone, where both of those companies have made it easier for developers to distribute their applications," Ballmer said, referring to Apple's iPhone SDK and App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the Facebook Platform, which provide independent developers with a way to more easily program, market, and distribute platform-specific software. (For its Ballmer-criticized mobile operating system, Google has introduced the Android Market.)
A key motive of each of these platform initiatives is attracting developer attention, and Microsoft is indeed taking note that the strategy is working. The iPhone software development kit, for example, was immediately picked up by 10,000 developers, and it gained more momentum when Apple dropped a nondisclosure policy for App Store releases.
"They've made it easier to kind of get exposure for your applications," Ballmer told a crowd of developers. "There's not much money being made, but the general concept of giving developers a way not only to get their code distributed, but to really get visibility for the code, is a good idea."
Will Microsoft develop a similar concept for Windows developers? Time will tell.
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