Windows XP Is Here: Do You Need It?

ByABC News
October 24, 2001, 1:28 PM

N E W   Y O R K, Oct. 25 -- With its big-budget launch of Windows XP, Microsoft is partying like it's 1995. But with the economy struggling and personal computer sales dipping, will consumers buy the new operating system?

"I'm not expecting it to have anywhere near as big an impact as Windows 95," says David Card, an analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix in New York, referring to the wildly successful operating system Microsoft introduced with a huge ad campaign six years ago.

As in 1995, the software giant is rolling out its highly touted new operating system for personal computers with a public-relations blitz that compares in expense, anyway to any in corporate history.

Microsoft is holding launch events in 63 cities, with the main rollout taking place in New York, where the company's co-founder, Bill Gates, is unveiling Windows XP and Sting will give a free concert in midtown Manhattan. Television ads featuring Madonna's "Ray of Light" will be airing on the heels of spots already on television touting the online Microsoft network.

All told, the promotional campaign may cost Microsoft $250 million, far more than virtually any other high-tech company could even contemplate spending on promoting a product.

Why Buy?

Still, Windows XP, which contains a variety of new multimedia features and retails for around $100, faces a struggle to attain smash-hit status, despite its generally favorable product reviews. With the new system, users have built-in applications for instant messaging and a host of multimedia features, including viewing video clips, playing and recording CDs and editing digital photos.

It is also based on the Windows 2000 source code, which keeps the system running even when one application crashes, removing a major complaint users have about Microsoft's products.

But a lot has changed in the six years since Microsoft rolled out Windows 95. Computer sales have hit a historic trough, the economy is floundering and the United States is under assault from terrorists.