Microsoft Talk

“This is the Conquistador,” explains Jerry Seinfeld, showing a befuddled Bill Gates a brown loafer. “They run very tight.”

After seeing the new ad from Microsoft, which debuted today, some may wonder what Jerry Seinfeld helping Bill Gates pick out a new pair of shoes has to do with software. The answer, in the classic Seinfeld sense of the word, is nothing. Nevertheless, the spot is the first and most visible sign of an ambitious effort by Microsoft’s Windows business to reconnect with consumers around the globe.
The new campaign will highlight how Windows has become an indispensible part of the lives of a billion people around the globe — not only on PCs but also now online and via mobile devices. It will illustrate how Windows integrates consumer experiences across PCs, online and on mobile phones through Windows Vista, Windows Live and Windows Mobile. Microsoft is working with retail partners and PC manufacturers to enhance the experience consumers have with Windows at every touch-point:

Major retailers, such as Circuit City and Best Buy, will begin rolling out Windows-branded sales environments and store-within-a-store concepts;
* Major PC manufactures including HP, Dell, Sony and Lenovo are working with Microsoft to enhance key areas of the PC experience, including speeding up startup and shut-down time and sleep and resume speeds;

* Windows.com has been revamped and will point consumer to specific Windows products and experiences that deliver.

Tapping Into the Potential of Windows

According to Brad Brooks, Corporate Vice President for Windows Consumer Product Marketing, the effort stems largely from the fact that Microsoft’s brand and products, and the way people use technology in general, are vastly different now than they were even a decade ago.

The Windows platform - including Windows Vista, Windows Mobile and Windows Live - were built to work together to connect the Windows experience beyond the PC to the phone and on the Web.

“When you think of more than a billion people using Windows across the globe, each person with a unique set of circumstances, and then factor in three Windows platforms and what they can do, it’s hard to even comprehend the number of unique scenarios Windows can potentially address,” says Brooks. “So how can Microsoft support this ecosystem? How can we help people understand the potential they have to be creative and productive with the platform?”

According to Brooks, Microsoft’s historic relationship with consumers has become insufficient in this new world, a situation that has led the company to fundamentally rebuild the customer experience.

Beyond the Campaign – Making PCs Better

This past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that changes were in the wind, saying the company would launch a series of initiatives to make Windows more meaningful and relevant. Now Ballmer is looking to Microsoft veteran Veghte and his team to lead the Windows business through the transformation.

A primary focus of the initiatives is to work with PC and device manufacturers to create hardware better-suited to deliver the kinds of experiences with Windows that customers want. To that end, Veghte and the team are driving changes in the engineering behind Windows PCs, and working closely with manufacturers to improve and enhance hardware performance in key areas that customers care about, such as computer start-up and shut-down speed, and overall security and reliability.