Microsoft Wins Key Search Deals
As posted by: Wall Street JournalLAS VEGAS -- Microsoft Corp., facing a bleak economy and rivals that have outflanked it in the consumer market, announced a milestone for the next version of Windows and a raft of deals designed to boost its online-search business.
The company showed a preliminary version of Windows 7, the next major edition of its flagship operating system, available for consumers to test on their personal computers starting Friday. Microsoft also announced a five-year deal with Verizon Wireless to make its Internet-search service broadly available on the wireless carrier's mobile phones and a similar agreement with Dell Inc. covering that hardware maker's PCs. The Microsoft agreements displace an existing search deal that rival Google Inc. had with Dell and another that Google was previously negotiating with Verizon.
The plans were unveiled Wednesday evening at the Consumer Electronics Show here by Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, in his first stint delivering a keynote speech at the annual trade show. For years, Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates had kicked off the event and anchored Microsoft's presence there, but Mr. Gates last year stepped away from day-to-day involvement at the Redmond, Wash., company to focus on philanthropy.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivers keynote address Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Mr. Ballmer took the stage for Microsoft at a time when much of the technology industry is on edge about the impact that the weakening world economy will have on demand for their products. The consumer initiatives Microsoft has unveiled at the show have at times tilted toward gee-whiz technologies like wristwatches that receive weather updates, but didn't end up selling well.
Microsoft lavished the most attention on Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, which received poor reviews when it came out two years ago.
During that same time, Apple Inc. has made small gains in the consumer market with its Macintosh computers, even though Microsoft still retains an overwhelming advantage. Windows 7 has new features designed to make it work more easily with devices like digital cameras and home networks.
Microsoft is placing a heavy emphasis on its speed, promising it will run well on everything from high-performance PCs to Netbooks, inexpensive laptops that have become a hit in the down economy.
At CES, Microsoft announced that developers who participate in Microsoft's technical programs could download the "beta" or test version of Windows 7 starting Wednesday night. The company will open that invitation to the wider public Friday, though it plans to limit the number of downloads to about three million.
Microsoft released an earlier test version of Windows 7 in October, though the version it is now offering includes all the final features expected in the software. Microsoft has said previously that it plans to ship the final version of Windows 7 by January 2010. Microsoft's distribution deals with Verizon and Dell could provide a lift for its search business, which has lagged far behind Google in share of queries by Internet users.
The agreement with Verizon, starting in the first half of this year, will make Microsoft's search engine easily accessible from nearly all of the handsets from the carrier, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC.
