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Windows 7 and hardware -- and making the sale

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Mike Angiulo demo new Windows 7 systems at today's Launch Party. Photo: Christopher Saunders Click to enlarge.

Later during the presentation, Mike Angiulo, general manager of planning and PC ecosystems at Microsoft, demonstrated dozens more new and upcoming PC designs that showcased Windows 7 media-sharing and graphics capabilities and performance.

That Microsoft execs spent a good deal of their time focusing on hardware during the launch isn't surprising. Companies ranging from Dell and Intel to tiny system integrators and specialized component makers are betting that the new OS will result in new hardware purchases.

That makes selling consumers and IT buyers on the idea of upgrading to a new Windows 7 system critical -- not just for Microsoft, but for the industry at large.

"This year 300 million or so PCs will be sold -- 300 million," Ballmer said. "It's really quite stunning. And I think the key to the PC, and ... the Windows PC success, is the fact that there is simply more you can do with these systems."

"When Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft, they talked about a computer on every desk and in every home," he added. "Today, I think we could say we have computers that are for every room, for every scenario and for every person in every facet, if you will, of their lives. And that is enabled by the launch not only of Windows 7, but of new Windows 7 personal computers."

One major question is whether the excitement will last past the initial promotions and advertising blitz. That didn't happen with Vista and that was partly what doomed it.

The good news is that analysts and pollsters say the numbers favor Microsoft and its hardware partners this time around. Recent surveys show pent-up demand for the new system among both consumer and IT constituencies.

In the meantime, Microsoft is concentrating on snapping IT buyers and consumers to action. Along with today's festivities around the world, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell this morning remotely rang the NASDAQ opening bell from the company's campus in Redmond, Wash. -- signaling the start of Windows 7's trading as well.

Ringing the NASDAQ opening bell is significant for another reason, too: Microsoft will announce revenues and earnings for its first quarter of fiscal 2010 tomorrow morning before the stock markets open.

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