The world's largest software manufacturer aims to win back customers disappointed by its last operating system Vista and strengthen its grip on the PC market.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 22, 2009) REUTERS- Microsoft Corp launched Windows 7 on Thursday (October 22), its most important release in more than a decade, aiming to win back customers disappointed by Vista and strengthen its grip on the PC market.
The world's largest software company, which powers more than 90 percent of personal computers, has received good reviews for the new operating system, which it hopes will grab back the impetus in new technology from rivals Apple Inc and Google Inc.

"There's not much that gets me more fired up than the chance to start selling and delivering," Ballmer told a packed audience at the Windows 7 launch in New York. "You will be unbelievably impressed."

The new system -- which is faster, less cluttered and has new touch-screen features -- comes almost three years after the launch of Vista, whose complexity frustrated many home users and turned off business customers.

The success of Windows -- which accounts for more than half of Microsoft's profit -- is crucial for Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to revive the company's image as the world's most important software firm.

"Our flagship product is certainly Windows. It's installed on over a billion computers worldwide, and there will be 300 million new computers sold this year, and I think Windows 7 is a chance for us to let the PC be, not only more interesting, but also more simpler and faster for the many, many hundreds of millions who use them," Ballmer told Reuters afterwards.

Ballmer and other executives demonstrated a range of new devices showing off Windows 7, from ultra-slim laptops to large touch-screen computers, highlighting a new Kindle book-reading application from Amazon.com Inc and live-streaming CBS television shows.

Microsoft is charging $199.99 (USD) for the Home Premium version of Windows 7, or $119.99 (USD) for users seeking to upgrade from older versions of the operating system -- well below comparable prices for Vista.

It also has a range of offers in conjunction with retailer Best Buy Co Inc and PC makers such as Dell Inc and Acer Inc.

For the first time, shoppers will be able to buy PCs loaded with the software direct from a branded Microsoft store, with the first of a planned chain set to open on Thursday in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The U.S. holiday season will soon reveal whether consumer PC sales get a kick from Windows 7, but success with corporations -- the key to Microsoft's financial power -- will not be clear until next year, analysts say.

"Windows 7 has been characterized by many people from a major release for Windows to something like a minor update for Windows Vista, but I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. Microsoft have done many changes to Windows 7 make it more compelling for users. They obviously improved performance. They improved certain things in terms of management memory so the experience for users will be much more, kind of compelling," said Annette Jump of Gartner Research.

"When we started Vista, the development, we had a big vision and then we shipped a product where perhaps the vision was a little bit ahead of the product. Today, we really built a product with the consumers and based on the feedback. We feel like the product might actually be ahead of the perception. And that's a good thing," said the vice president of Microsoft Consumer and Online Media in Europe, John Mangelaars. "So we feel very comfortable that that this is a product that's much better connected with consumers than Vista was."

Market-watchers are betting on further recovery of computer sales next year, as the economy improves and businesses replace old machines, but opinion remains divided on how strong the impact of Windows 7 will be.