Inside the Channel

Microsoft commercials are doing the job

If you're in the business of selling Microsoft, or any sort of Microsoft-based hardware--and that makes up a pretty big majority of resellers--I don't think you're in danger of going out of business any time soon. The new set of Microsoft television commercials are a hit, and Windows 7 is going to once and for all put the Vista stigma to rest. All reports are that it works well, is faster than Vista, and should gain market share in short order, as all those people using XP but didn't want to upgrade to Vista come out of the woodwork and get on board with Windows 7.

The ads are clever, and let's face it, even have a little bit of that "hip" element that used to be the exclusive domain of the Mac TV spots. I personally liked the old Seinfeld commercials, but then again, I'm middle-aged and used to watch Seinfeld when Seinfeld was cool. Overall, they missed the mark though in hitting the demographic Microsoft was going after.

The commercials do spark a lot of interest and some fierce debate, as evidenced by the incredible response on a recent ZDNet blogby Christopher Dawson, who plainly says, "my users want Windows." There's still an anti-Vista sentiment floating around, but I think this is more specific to Vista than it is to Microsoft in general--everyone's going to want a Windows 7 upgrade. And eventually, it's going to be a necessity as XP slowly becomes obsolete.

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