Tarun Gulati, one of the key members of management (general manager) handling business strategy, marketing and operations for Microsoft India says Window 7 is a turning point for Microsoft. In an exclusive interaction with FE?s Rachana Khanzode he talks about the challenges facing Windows 7 and the next in line launches from Microsoft. He also explains how Microsoft is working around piracy as over 50,000 pirated sets of Windows 7 were sold with in a week from the official launch of Windows 7 last month.
How is the Windows 7 launch for Microsoft different from its earlier launch, such as the Vista?
Every year, we invest $9.5 billion in research and development. For Windows 7 we had more than 600 new feature requests to work on. Even before we did launch it officially we had about 1,700 corporate customers and partners and there were 8 million people using it globally. When Vista was launched it had certain issues and not all applications of Windows XP could work with Vista. We had not seen such a response then. In Windows 7 we have worked on the application compatibility, design principal and security and all applications working on Vista should work on Windows 7.
But analysts say it will cost more for corporates with existing infrastructure to move to Windows 7?
Clearly, using Windows 7 doesn?t require additional hardware. The compatibility allows it to work on existing hardware. The price point for corporates largely depends on the size and support requirements of the firm. For retail buyers it would range from Rs 5,800 to Rs 12,000. The fact is that even if you compare with open Linux operating system, the total cost of ownership is much less. This is because there are a number of inbuilt applications including security, encryption of data and power savings among others. With these, productivity also increases and we can say that the return on instrument can be achieved within a year.
What is next in line for Microsoft?
We plan to launch Office 2010, Sequel Server 2010, Visual Studio (developers tools) and Project Natal for XBOX by April-May 2010. Usually before we launch a product a lot of stress test happens. Currently, we are doing trials for these products. For the operating systems the stress test time frame is about 1-1.5 years.
How will you deal with piracy?
Piracy in India is about 68% and we are in the same shoes as the music or film industry. We have taken steps to communicate with corporations who unknowingly use pirated versions. But after a communication happened and if we find any corporation willingly violating the laws we have gone ahead and taken legal action against them. We are talking to the government and trade bodies to raise the level of awareness and bring policies on intellectual property.
