We’re now less than two weeks from the launch of Windows 7 on October 22nd, when anybody walking into a PC store to buy a new machine will see an unfamiliar shiny blue new desktop glaring out at them. But will they know what it is?
Some of you may know I’ve recently written a user guide for Windows 7 that I’ve been evangelising to friends and that they, in turn, have helpfully been evangelising to their friends. However the biggest question I’ve been asked when telling people about it is…
“Windows 7? What’s that?”
This is a very good question. Where is the advertising telling consumers that Windows 7 is coming? So far there have been adverts but I’ve only seen one on TV, very briefly, and most of the rest of the promotion and publicity seems to be coming from websites like Windows7News. Which is advertising to the wrong crowd as consumers don’t tend to read sites like this.
It could be argued that Microsoft don’t really need to promote Windows 7 at all. Anybody who buys a new PC will be presented with a copy as a fait-au-complet and that’s that. They won’t mind getting Windows 7 because they won’t really understand what it is. It’ll just be a copy of Windows to them.
But Windows 7 is much more than this and, sadly, much of Microsoft’s advertising, what little there has been, has been around the Windows Live Essentials Suite. Okay this is good and I’d even say ‘essential’ but what about Libraries, the desktop enhancement tools like Aero snap, and better accessibility tools?
Microsoft are currently doing an awful job of promoting their new OS though this wouldn’t be the first time. In answer to the question above I would reply that Windows 7 is the replacement for Vista. About 40% of people would then say… “Oh! What’s that?”
